I'd Rather Be Painting

This is a story about one man's forty-year struggle to leave what he thought would be a temporary job in Banking to follow his lifelong dream of becoming an artist. Away from the bank, he took what time he could afford to work toward that goal. After some oil painting lessons, his skills improved. Working in his garage usually at night, he started giving away and selling some of his paintings to friends. Since Banking and Art are quite opposite, he felt as though he was leading a sort of double life. After his skills improved, he attempted to find ways to leave banking, including a wild and crazy decision to open a gallery in Carmel, California. Still living his double life, he hoped the gallery would eventually replace his bank job. It did not. When a benefactor offered to back him financially, he happily left banking, only to reluctantly return to banking when his benefactor could not continue funding. Back to his double life again, he continued painting and sold his work in several galleries. This story takes the reader on many rocky paths, some of which were dead ends, ultimately to one as a full time Artist. When Illness and death took his wife and daughter, his faith was sorely tested, however he never gave up painting. After remarrying, he and his wife returned to the Monterey Bay where the dream is still alive.