Happy Birthday to me!

September 3rd is my day. I think I was four years old in this picture. I remember the dress—slippery and the smell of the curling iron—singed hair. This is probably a year before kindergarten when I started to draw and paint and never stopped. The kindergarten room was so wonderful. It was huge with enormous tables and big sheets of paper with pots of paints and brushes and clay and glue. Lots of room to spread out. My father liked to tell the story of other "artwork" I did at home when I discovered a hammer and what it could do and had a good time putting dents in the screen door. No little angel was I.