It Got Me To Where I am Today

Then when I was twenty I went to Hungary with my grandmother who was born in Hungary and immigrated to the US after World War II by way of Germany where my mother was born. I think my first uncle was born in England and then they hopped on a boat and traveled to the states, my mother was about two at the time and although they did not come through Ellis Island, she says that she remembers seeing the Statue of Liberty on the way into the Harbor. Anyways I went to Hungary with my grandmother in 1990; she had not been there since 1969. It was the first year after the fall of communism and there was so much going on. We went to some market in Downtown Budapest in this huge square and I went nuts with buying beads. There were so many of them and I think that I might still have a few of the seed beads left. The only logical thing to do with those beads when I got home after my incredible trip to Hungary…I made lots of beaded necklaces and took them with me on tour following the Grateful Dead. I mostly stuck to the Northeast shows and the jewelry was enough to pay my way and bring some home cash to live off of…kind of. Eventually I dropped out of school because I couldn’t figure out what to do with my life. I put my Macramé skill to work and started making Hemp necklaces and even some clothing and started following Phish around too. Somehow I ended up working at some awful factory and found that was the perfect time to go back to school for a second try, this time for art. I graduated from Fingerlakes Community College with a degree in Fine art and when on to SUNY Oswego on the shores of Lake Ontario. There I took some printmaking classes and I added some of my mono-prints to my list of crafty items that I was selling on Phish tour. After a few semesters and a few sub-zero winters it was time to drop out of school for the second time. And there were many who believed that was a terrible mistake, and maybe it was…but it got me to where I am today.