My Sister is the Artist in the Family

I received a random package in the mail.  Inside was a gorgeous salad bowl, pieced together from different types of wood, and then turned on a lathe by my brother.  It looks like an intricate geometric puzzle.  My brother is the philosopher and builder in the family, but this bowl is a work of art.

We all have our roles and our labels.  Growing up, my middle sister was the artist in the family.  I was the youngest of five, the one that always hung up her coat.  I went to an Ivy League school to study engineering and ended up getting a degree in business.

In high school and college, I took some classes in drawing and painting.  I just dabbled, because, well, my sister was the artist in the family.  After grad school, I took a class in pottery to get away from the intellectual drain.   Through marriage, two kids and a divorce, I kept taking pottery classes, but worked in business.  I never saw clay as anything but a hobby, as my sister was the artist in the family.

What I didn’t realize until my children were budding artists, was that I actually come from a family of artists.   My dad works in wood and my mother sews and knits.  Each of my siblings creates in a medium, which include textiles, wood, baking, painting, stone, concrete, glass and clay.  

It took me many years to be able to refer to myself as an artist.  I loved to tell my adult pottery students, that my sister was the artist in the family.  It always took a minute and I could watch their light bulb go on.  In the end, as an artist, I took that hobby and turned it into a growing business, putting that Ivy League education to work.

You can find my art for sale in my Etsy Shop:  JulieNeriPottery.  You can find my daughter’s art in her Etsy Shop: TaneaAnnDesigns.  She creates with paint, metal and fabric.  If you meet her, she will tell you that she comes from a family of artists.