Fishing and Art - What do the Two Have in Common?

I am an artist, in particular a painter. Acrylic, encaustic, mixed media, some watercolor and water-based Oil. I love to paint, but somehow, I can always find something else to do, until I don't. When I sit down or stand at my easel a window to a whole new world opens and I jump through. Once I start painting, I don't want to stop. Normally it is only my aches and pains, the dogs or hunger that makes me step back through the window to the "real world". 

I am also a fisher person. Ok I am not ashamed to say, I am a fisherman. I may not be a man, but you get my point. I am a person who loves to fish, catch fish and eat the fish I catch. Cleaning is not my favorite, but my handy dandy electric fish cleaning knife does simplify things!

My family from the time I was 11 or so went camping and fishing most weekends until I was 15 or 16. Then it was occasional as my sister and I became more social in school. We fished hard all weekend, running trotlines and taking our Jon boat to favorite fishing holes. We would fish awhile and swim awhile when weather permitted. It was again like opening a window when we left Saturday morning and not stepping back inside the "real world" until we returned home Sunday night.  

I still love to fish, as matter of fact I bought a lake house partially because I wanted to fish. There is good fishing right off my property. We have catfish, crappie, sunfish and bass right there. When I first bought the house my sister and I would be out there for hours fishing. We would catch something, and the neighbors thought we won the lottery. We would whoop and laugh and yell at each other. We were all of 40 – 50 yards, if that much from each other. We had so much fun, it didn’t matter if it was a keeper. It was the chase that delighted us. Believe or not I am again now in the mode where I can always find something else to do rather than fish, why is that? Why do we put things we love to the side for the things we think we have to do? Surely, I am not the only one this happens to? I know my sister and I don’t fish as often; she has had some health issues that have gotten in the way. But I really have no excuse. The water and one of the best fishing holes I have ever known is literally 15 feet from my deck. If it weren’t for the trees and my being extremely proficient at hooking trees,I could fish from my back porch.

It is a quandary, I have found something painting and fishing have in common, at least for me and I need to start opening the window and leaving the “real world” more often for both of them. I painted this morning, perhaps tomorrow I will fish. I know I saw a crappie in the shallows a little while ago. They are calling me.

Leave me a comment, do you have this happen to you?