My art teacher spots her outside the window and leaves the rest of us to go help her with her things. It is the first day of a new class in a new space and I am not at all sure that this is the class I should be in. I look at the door and a woman with a walker is moving slowly into the room. Her care-giver is close beside her and is carrying her bag of supplies. She sits in front of her easel while the teacher adjusts her things and then we begin to discuss the color wheel. I am ashamed of the thought that I sometimes have of being too old to take up something like painting that requires years of study, as I consider the effort it has taken her to come to this beginners painting class.
Then the teacher lets us in on an astonishing bit of information. This lady is the inventor of mod-podge. Yep, she mixed it up in her garage in the 60’s, patented it and got royalties for 17 years and then sold the wonder-sticking formula to a crafts company. I immediately thought that this is some grand lady and I asked her if I could take her picture and blog about her.
So here she is, Jan Wetstone, come to play on the play-grand. And play she does. Do you know that she actually mod-podged her Volkswagen with bed-sheets just to see if they would stick? And when I asked her how to spell her name I said, W- h- e- t stone? And she said, “No, I’m divorced, I got the H out.
i am right there with you. I started painting 5 yrs ago and now do acrylics, and pastels. Remember me? We carpooled together. I am the one that got the ticket for speeding down Akers Mill with all the kids jumping around singing in the car. Seatbelts? Hell NO! I always loved Dallas the best. Now I am learning to facebook and “tweet”. egads, not sure what for yet.
Patsy!!!! You and mom need to get together and paint, she’s found her “roar” it took her a little while but her art classes helped bring it out.
I now have a HUGE smile on my face!!
PS. Did it work on the car?…..
That’s so cool, where would my life be without Mod Podge? Probably a little less cluttered considering the 8 zillion fabric scraps I keep in case I need them someday for a project, I never thought of the car! Maybe those fabric scraps would cover my hail dents! 🙂
This is such an inspiration! It brought back memories of all the Mod Podge projects I did in my younger years. Perhaps all my beautiful new artist’s supplies will come out to play sooner than I thought…