Seven years old i saw a picture of a little deer in my new coloring book, think Bambi. Meant to be colored with my fresh box of 64 crayons, the first one i had ever owned. I sat there staring at the black ink drawing with no color and for some reason I picked up a pencil and started copying the drawing of the deer rather than coloring it. I stayed up until 2 am on weekday with a laser focused to complete the drawing. Took it to school and my teacher was amazed with my work. Of course I believed her but she was more than suspicious that i had done the drawing. “Sketch,” she called it. She asked several questions that I answered and then i showed her the coloring book that I copied it from. The size difference was obvious proof that I didn’t trace it. She said “i bet you’ve sketched a lot of drawings for your Mama, to which I replied “No ma’am this is my first one” she said, “EVER?” Yes i replied. She said does your Mama know you’re an Artist? Im and artist? I’m an ARTIST! Born into a very poor family of 7 kids living in the Wilkinson Terrace Projects, here in Shreveport. We were offered a free Art class taught by Mr. Myers through the city and his kind , generous heart. I did several oil paintings. I was hooked on creating. No money for anything at all for us i learned to use what others threw away. Cardboard, wood scraps, containers from food products.perfume bottles plus that first and only brand new box of crayons were the total sum of my art supplies once the art class was over. I still miss that smell of oil paint to this day. I loved to create any way I could. Walnut shells became boats. My brother collected pocket knives so i taught myself how to whittle. With cardboard, kitchen matches, aluminum foil, plastic wrappers, clothes hangers and scotch tape. All of my Mama’s scotch tape i created a replica of the control panel like the one in the Lunar Module the best my 9 year old memory could do from looking at a story in “Weekly-Reader magazine” so a 9 year old’s version. Then in real-time as Walter Cronkite gave America moment by moment details on the Lunar Module landing on the moon, i ran back and forth between Walter and my own spacecraft upstairs in my room. The materials I previously listed became the Instruments and Gages. Matches became toggle switches and i was the Son of Neil Armstrong…. Randy Armstrong the unknown unofficial third astronaut who also walked on the moon on July 20th 1969. My father had passed 3 years earlier and this was my power, my confidence, my badassery. Didn’t need coping, i had creative power so I created my own world. I had so much creative fun yet I hadn’t even discovered curbside thrash at this point. We didn’t have a car so my world was small. Once I discovered people threw away amazing things that i never dreamed of owning. I would go curbside shopping on the regular. Occasionally id find some broken stuff and turn it into something really cool and or something nice. That didn’t last long-maybe i lost creativity flow or maybe it was before its time. Who knows?!?! Fast forward to the 70s and like so many others drugs took over my world, I still did art but only halfheartedly at best. Got off drugs after many years and much abuse but i lived to tell the story. Unlike MANY of my close friends, I LIVED!! Even through major drug use and staying awake for days on a speed run id still do some art. Once I purchased small wooden boxes from a local art supply store. I’d decorate them often doing decoupage. Some hardware and sometimes felt interior then I’d sell them or trade them and give them away. Meanwhile-through My uncle and my own hustling I learn how to paint houses, did it professionally for 30+ years as a side job. Also learned carpentry this was mostly self taught. Did that professionally for 25+ years as a side job as well. Time flew by and im twenty something-Married, 3 kids, two jobs, no drugs or alcohol…..Eventually art was shelved except for the occasional need for a kids school project or some gift and occasionally some extra income. By Art, i mean building or rebuilding something sellable for a person’s home. Fast forward to 2015, I retired early. At 55 i had built myself a nice wood shop. Over the years these skills i had acquired became polished and I attempted to build furniture in my shop. But the “Projects-Kid” was loud in my mind. The trash on curbs always appealed to me but now it was screaming loudly to come gather and create. I found such joy, expression and fulfillment in recycling and then “UpCycling” it took over the furniture building almost immediately. Now i do some of both and also many many other types that all go together in what I lovingly refer to as …”UpCycled-Functional Art” I can tell you although this is a long story it could be this X 5 as the stories are many. To sum up the here and now though id say I’m an ARTIST!…… ….if “UpCycled Functional Art” is an actual category tucked somewhere, that’s what i do! If its not ……it is NOW!