Cheryl M. - age 78 - Kathleen Cosgrove

It’s probably happened to all of us who have reached a certain age . . . you
walk by a mirror and catch of glimpse of someone you don’t know. How did
this happen that I am now this whole different person when I feel like I am
still the same?
I loved doing art like all children, so I took a few lessons when I was eight
years old. Then my father died when I was nine and we moved. From then
until I was in my twenties, I didn’t make art again.
I married, had three children, and enjoyed my life but I always felt something
missing that was just for myself. So, I bought some oil paints with
green stamps and started painting by reading books and experimenting.
I won’t dwell on all those years of painting, studying with gifted artists and
learning to get my work out there. It was not easy without a network of art
school friends and living in a small town. I worked hard as all of us do who
love what we do. I even started a website back in 1998. There were not a
lot of artists doing that at the time.
Now that I have been working as an artist for more than forty years, I have
slowed down some. I think that is good. It gives me more time to think. I
continue to have my work in three galleries and have had up to five at one
time. All my kids are grown, my husband passed away after over fifty-seven
years of marriage in December.
Now is the fall/winter of my life and I plan to continue to go to the studio
and do what I have always done. There might be fewer hours spent, but I
think they will be more productive for my personal art life. I am also preparing
to get back to doing more travel in the future, beginning with a trip to
southern France at the end of the month. The day after I step off the plane
will be my seventy-eighth birthday.