>Dragons Live Forever

>

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."

~ Carl Sagan

(click to enlarge)

http://media.imeem.com/m/ObH7KURd-k/aus=false/

Today, my psychedelic beaded blue bus goes to the sea where my mother joins us on our journey. Okay, it isn't really the sea, it's Lake Erie, but when you're a little kid, it's all the same...

Since I grew up in Erie, PA, for the longest time, I really thought that Puff the Magic Dragon lived somewhere on Lake Erie. But, every time Mom took me to the beach, I never found him. So, when I got home, I would listen to the record over & over again. I wanted to know where Puff lived; I wanted to meet him and be his friend. I thought for sure that the Land called Honalee was a real place, and I wanted to go there.... Well, it wasn't until years later that I realized that it is indeed a real place, and it exists in my imagination:)

My mother always encouraged my imagination, as well as my involvement in the arts. When I was small, she always told me that I could draw, but I always disagreed.... until one day, when I came home from school and presented her with a painting. It was a picture of fluorescent yellow flowers, with tall bright green stems on black construction paper. She loved it. She put it in a yellow frame, hung it in the kitchen, and it is still there today. Somehow, I think that seeing my painting on the wall everyday while I was growing up helped me become the artist that I am now...

Thank you for believing in me, Mom. Because of you, I still believe that dragons exist:)