When my mother was a girl (in the ’40’s) she told me she used to ride the trolly car alone to Fair Park to take art lessons in the summer.  All I can picture is what a different time it must have been when a ten-year-old little red-haired girl could ride a streetcar all by herself into the heart of downtown Dallas with no problem.  Now in the U.S. kids who are ten are not even allowed to ride in the front seat of a car with their own parents.  My mother had a true talent for art and was fond of replicating scenes from Audubon’s books of wildlife.  I never took art lessons and have no idea if I would have been any good.  This summer I sent our little one to an art “camp” for a week, which translated into a four-hour-a-day respite for me so I could work and at least pretend to keep up the house along with my sanity.  Our child likes to paint and has already been exposed to art classes early curtesy of the private school she is fortunate to attend.  I never picked up a paint brush in my life until I was 44.  A few years ago, to my delight, I’d won a silent auction bid to raise money for our little one’s church school.  It was an evening out for two to paint a scene of their choosing at an art studio with an instructor in a fun class.  I wanted to paint the Dallas skyline and hoped my husband would as well.  Sadly, he had zero interest so I invited a girlfriend of mine to go with me instead.  We enjoyed some Cab Sav and painted our interpretations of the skyscrapers downtown.  She is a professional art therapist but my friend was gracious and very laid back.  Her attitude was that art is not perfection; it is personal.  I really enjoyed taking the class and gained a small understanding of how relaxing creating a painting can be.  When my mother was a young girl, she hand-painted all sorts of birds on fragile china plates and cups.  She also painted two framed pieces which hang in our daughter’s playroom.  My favorite is the one she made of waterbirds.  Stalky white cranes, small egrets, and great blue herons are all perched on delicate tree branches overlooking water lilies blooming in deep, blue water.  The Irish critic George Bernard Shaw once said, “You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.”  I find that particularly significant given how many different people view art in so many different ways.  Our daughter came back after the second day and presented me with my favorite — a wolf in blue.  This holds great significance for me and I know both my father and my mother would have been so proud.  Even if you have never tried before, I say it’s not too late to try your hand at painting … it may allow you a reflection into your soul.