Who's Ma! Foster?

You guessed it, I'm an artist! ...of multiple mediums.
I love art, humor, being a mom, but especially kids art and their Creative Spirit ✨
I didn't figure out that I was such a detail oriented artist until 7th grade when I took a mechanical drawing class.
I was really good at it and my teacher was like, "WoW"!
It was great timing, because I needed the attention.
My dad had just passed away 🙏
He was a PILLAR in my life! To this day, I think about him almost everyday.
Imagine having that much impact on your child?
Amazing✨
I often wonder how differently my life would have been if he was here to guide me in adult life.
He even tortured me by requiring me to play the flute starting at age 7.
I think that's why I have such attention to detail.
Here's the story...
He said it was a 7 year assignment.
Ouch.
My sister had to play the violin, but quickly got out of it, cause she rebelled.
I was the child who mostly obeyed, so I did it.
That's probably because I got to see her get "the belt" so much, I never got it.
He was still an awesome dad 🤍
Back to the flute, he said I had to practice an hour a day with my own motivation.
No reminders, but he would keep track writing it down in his "At-A-Glance" planner and on Saturdays he would require me to play for the missed hours.
Sometimes, it was 5 hours.
Needless to say my cheeks were really sore and it was a torturous day!
SO! I learned to play with my own motivation, but I hated it!
We lived in a City with a University and the Head Professor of the Music Department was my teacher.
Lessons once a week at the Professors House.
I'm not kidding when I say he looked like Humpty Dumpty. A seriously round Belly with a thin Belt all the way around it 🥚 white dress shirt, slacks. Looked highly uncomfortable. Waddler.
He wouldn't let me advance to the next song, unless I had it down perfectly!!!
So, I got really good. I went thru many a song books.
But, I hated it.
My dad would sit there on the couch watching the lesson and looking so proud-yuck!
I vowed never to do that to my children.
The professor's University would have Kids Summer Music Camp for grades 6-12.
I attended for 3 summers, prior to my dads passing.
I played in the Symphony and Orchestra.
There were always 10-12 flutests.
I was ALWAYS 1st chair in the flute section, because they considered me the best.
I played the piccolo, too.
So imagine...I was like 11 years old and there was a 17 year old girl in 2nd flute chair.
She would "Challenge" me for my 1st flute chair.
That's how it goes with Symphonies and Orchestras.
It's a pecking order...just like life 🙄🤗
We both practiced the same song and then we had a show down with the Conductor.
I would always win.
It was always awkward.
Of course my ego kinda liked it, but eh, I didn't wanna be there in the first place! Had to 👎🏼
Thankfully, I was a tall girl and I was intimidating that way. At least I didn't feel physically threatened~
So, if I played the flute for 6.5 years for at least 5 hours a week, then that means I've played at least 1,690 hours on the flute!
Holy Shit! That's a lot!
Here's the sad part...
On my Dad's death bed he apologized to me for making me play the flute and said I could stop if I wanted to, so I quit.
No more flute!
AND I don't have any regrets to this day!
Screw the flute!
Love you Dad! 💖
Hallelujah 🤗

Back to da Art...

In High School I was really struggling with social dynamics. I was in a big school of 1250 students. It was bruttle.
I had 2 social scenes, the preppy athletic girls and the stoner alternative girls.
I went on independent study for a year and a half and got a lot done!
I worked at the District Attorneys office part-time and found out what 5150 and 420 meant.
I had to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, cause my job was to purge their citation filing cabinets of old citations.
There wasn't any windows in the tiny room and the perimeter was completely packed with heavy grey green metal filing cabinets.
Everyday was like a treasure hunt.
I knew what everybody at my school had gotten in trouble for, but couldn't tell anyone. Even da teachers!
My senior year last semester I went back to in-person school.
Plus, I need a biology lab, which at one point I almost flunked, however I pulled thru with a B.
I had lots of free time, so I took 3 hours of Art Classes in the mornings. This is where I really found out how detailed I could be.
I drew Cindy on Aether there.
I also drew another model, who's drawing was stolen off the wall in my art class.
It was a big "ToDo" all over da school.
It was awkward and the teacher knew who did it. He was a guy who had a few screws loose and on top of mass hormones decided that that model was his!
We soon had a meeting in the principals office and he returned the drawing.
Awkward and flattering at the same time 🙃

JdublYu 💖

In my own parenting I vowed not to force learning a particular thing on my son, JdublYu, or a handful of foster children I've had.
Rather, my philosophy has been to teach them a base set of skills needed to develop their own creativity, drives and interests.
Mainly, computer skills for this day and age.
It's their canvas. The container that holds their vision or "wears" and displays it for their customers-just like a store front and just like this website.
They learn to create brochures or videos, etc. It's Powerful!
I also did not allow JdublYu to play video games at our house and he wasn't at his friends houses very much, because I mainly hosted his hangouts.
From the first time he could hold a pencil I put it in his hand with a clipboard and blank paper.
Especially in da car 🚗
I made him a low screen child and the result is that I have a binder full of beautiful drawings from his youth.
To this day, I'll find him on his own sitting there quietly drawing in a comfy spot.
The base drawings for the "GOLD merchant ship" and the "DRAGON SkyScraper Rocket Ship" Works, were both drawn by JdublYu at the age of 7 in 2014.
Note that the GOLD merchant ship is 95% or more of the original drawing, which we've referred to as the "Pirate Ship" over the years.
There's one missing peace.

💖my dad...

Despite the flute thing, I still admired and loved who my Dad was, tremendously~
Who was he?
He was in the Army in Medical School in the early 1960s.
I have some cool black & white pics of him at the microscope in da lab!
Over seas, after he got out of the Army he bought a VW bug and traveled all over to many different countries.
16,000 miles in total.
I have original postcards and brochures from the countries he went to and letters that he wrote to his mother!
He was in his mid-twenties when he met my Mom 🤍
She was 9 years his senior!
She was single with 3 kids in the 60s.
She was working for him from home stuffing envelopes.
He sold real estate in the Tahoe Keys in Northern California.
Before that he sold Cadillacs in the San Francisco Bay Area. We always drove around in these big boat cars. I loved it!
One day he came to her house and the kids answered the door.
He said, "Where's yur Ma!?"
They said she was in bed and didn't want to talk to anyone
She was depressed
He said, "Go get er'"
Yep, that's the guy that Wins!!!
They married.
He legally adopted all 3 kids. Her abusive messed up alcoholic ex was fine with it. He raised us all up together!
After marrying they had my sister and then me.
So, I'm the youngest of 5.
My mom always looked young for her age and people tell me the same.
However, I developed grey hair young!
The Mexican women looooove it!
They're like, "Oh my mija, where'd you get yur hair done?"
Back to Dad...
Luckily, he grabbed the Opportunity with my Mom when he saw it, because he passed on at the age of 44.
I feel that God blessed me to experience him to the age of 13.
I always new 13 was a lucky number!
My mother...is Amazing too!
She loved traditions and being a home maker.
She hosted MANY sleep overs with my friends.
Birthdays were so fun...3 foot pizzas!
She was funny, too.
We used to crack up all the time, just like I do with my own son!
I definitely have a funny bone 😁
In High School me and my friends dressed up as the Space Balls Characters and went to parties.
I was Dark Helmet (spoof on Darth Vader)
I took a black umbrella and made a giant helmet with a face lid that went up and down
I would stand in the middle of a party with my Space Balls Posse and take a puff on a dubby under my giant helmet, then flip the lid up and blow it out!
Ha! It was hilarious! 🤣
There was Major Asshole, Princess Vespa, Barf, Yoghurt...
Good Times.
Ok, yah my Mom was floundering after my Dad died.
We had zero counseling.
I feel as if my life would have been SO different if I had the support of my STRONG Dad to Guide me through it 🙏
That's a big reason why my next work is "da House", so that those who are missing a Ma and/or Pa in their lives, can get some GOOD Guidance to ACT on an Epic Life ✨ Accountability.
Encouragement to UpLevel and Aim High 👆
Growing up when I saw those commercials with the starving children in Africa, I always thought to myself that God probably gave me the last name of Foster, so that I would do just that.
Be a Foster Mom.
So, for 3.5 years I was a Foster Mom.
And my amazing son was a Foster Brother 💓❤💙
Here's to Celebrating da Child's Creative Spirit ✨
💖Ma! Foster