Artwork by Evelyn Johns Rivera
I started becoming interested in making art in grade school, when a teacher unexpectedly posted a pen drawing of two bears that I had made as an illustration to a story assignment. I had not thought of myself as someone capable of making art until that day. Since that day, I have got on with it in life, enjoying my day job and my family, always doing art. I always wished for the day that I had all the time in the world to focus on art, but that day has not yet come. I realized along the way, that even the “great” artists still had lives and that a balance is often needed between the two parts of this world.
I have always wanted to better myself as an artist. At first, raising children, I had little income to devote to it, so I continued to draw, and painted as I could afford it. I eventually went back to school to study art, joined a local painting cooperative, and colored pencil association, and learned to exhibit and sharpen my skills. When your life is always rooted in art, art has a way to live within it. …
