Dream Store

I started planning my dream store when I took my first official art class when I was fifteen.  My parents thought art was a colossal waste of time and money so I had never been very supported in what I considered to be the early stages of my ‘career’.  I started babysitting for other families in the neighborhood when I was in middle school and started saving all my money for art supplies.  Acrylic paint in particular.  Art classes had been stricken from the middle school syllabus just before I started sixth grade so I had to wait until ninth grade to really get any feedback on the various projects I had in the works. 

I had found several painting classes I wanted to take over the summer, but my parents would never sign the permission slips so I was always out of luck.  When I met Mr. Barry for the first time, I knew I had found the mentor I had been waiting for.  As the years went on and I got closer to high school graduation and college applications, I asked him to write a recommendation for me.  His response stunned me.  I would only get a recommendation if I would come to his house after school and sit for a portrait.  Everyone was shocked when he was arrested, but I wasn’t.  He had often asked students, including me, to sit for portraits in the nude.  I didn’t even feel guilty for turning him in.