Hi LinasMom,

Thank you for asking. There is hardly anything more pleasurable than talking about art. At least in my world. I've been a musician since age 8 when I started classical piano lessons. But I was spoiled to my gifts and would memorize sonatas 1 1/2 days before going to UIL, making the top score and driving my father mad at my lack of effort.

I also played the violin for 3 years (ages 10-12), and flute.(ages 13-15).

I studied voice for, ahem, several decades with a primary focus on opera. This is probably where the PTSD was the most disruptive. I had no problem with performances but auditions were nearly impossible, not-to-mention, there is a lot of traveling and turns out to be such a solitary life. But oh I do love to sing. It makes colors more vivid :-) I've been a writer since I can remember (used to tell on my sister through notes to my parents ;-) this art blossomed into an intense flair for poetry and short stories.

I eventually incorporated oil painting into the mix. My Brother-In-Law describes my work as coming from a surreal perspective (which was interesting because I hadn't quite noticed it before but this seemed the best one-word descripters thus far).

Gosh, I love creating design on the computer.

Please go indepth on your artistic tendencies. What do you think PTSD lends itself to?

As I watch movies, am transcended by an aria or transfixed by a bewitching painting, I realize that I am not the one out of sync, but it is the world at large that cannot handle the emotional intensity of digging at the bottom of the barrel and that maybe it is my purpose in life to connect people to this lifesource every now and then that we seem to be so forever linked into.

Many blessings,

CS