About

My Mother's Words Remembered

Several years ago, I was working in our art booth at a Morgan horse show at the Monroe, Washington Fairgrounds. I had already completed 8-9 airbrush portraits on tee shirts that day, and new orders were stacking up.

My partner, Cheryl Wofford, was handling the orders, and I was smiling, and disappearing into each project as completely as possible to get everything done.

Screen printed shirts, airbrushes, and blank shirts were stacked around us, and customers were straining to watch my splashes of permanent colors being airbrushed on pristine, white shirts, freehand, "on the fly". My shoulders and wrists were burning from several hours of effort.

A lady in a pretty, sparkly top, made it to the front of the crowd, and I could see the sparkles of her shirt out of the corner of my eye as I worked. I quickly looked away from my easel, to see what she had tossed onto the table beside me. It was a folded shirt in a nice, plastic package. It showed part of a very detailed painting of a pretty, bay Morgan mare.

I glanced at the area right around the horse's eye. Boy, what a nice detailed job on that eye. I could never do that, as my style was so free and open, and I dislike doing every picky detail.  "I would never be that good," I thought.

I turned back to the shirt on my easel. The lady started talking to my partner, and suddenly, I knew that distinctive, deep voice. I turned to my right and looked up into her face. I recognized my client from yesterday. That was my own artwork on her packaged shirt.

I was that artist, that I thought I would, “never be”. My mother would often say to me, "you can do anything you set your mind to, Stacey - never forget that. You're just as good as anybody else." The memory of her words came flooding back.

Although my mother died when I was just 16, I could hear her words aloud again, in my heart. My own doubtful thoughts were proven wrong. At that moment, I knew my mother was right.

My mother gave me the key, “You can do anything if you set your mind to it”. When one of our four daughters expresses frustration over things, like "drawing as well as mom," I tell them this story. I hope you may share it with your children, too. It's all in how you believe in yourself, and it's really true, "You can do anything if you set your mind to it."

AWhiteHorse.com™ is dedicated to the memory of my family.