Welcome to Three Questions with Van Heerling. This is where you get to meet authors, actors, painters and anyone else that is bent toward the arts, but on a more personal level.
I am thrilled to have artist and writer Tracy Pittman on Three Questions.
VH: Tracy, if you had two years left to live from this moment, what would you change about your life?
TP: I think that I would quit stalling. By that, I mean start living. When you're young you have dreams and you're biting at the bit to conquer the world, but as you grow older you realize that the world fights back and not only does it fight back, but it's bigger, meaner, and pretty much a bully. You end up hunkering down in a corner just fighting off the wolves. While I would want to spend as much time with my family as possible, I'd also want to break free and see some of the world (the only time I was out of TX was when I was too young to remember it). I want to stand where Michelangelo stood in the Sistine Chapel. I want to hear the rush of a waterfall and run through a field of wild flowers. Stand atop of a mountain or canoe down a river, but most of all I want to walk through a real castle (laugh at me if you will, but it's always been a childhood dream of mine). I think that I would dare to dream and actually have the courage to chase after it. I might even finish this freakin' novel. lol!
VH: I think you should find the castle you most want to visit, book a November flight and start pressing your shoes against those castle steps.
If you could go back in time to when you were seven years old, what wisdom or advice would you pass onto yourself?
TP: When I was young, somewhere around that age, I saw my brother drawing from a magazine. I looked over his shoulder and saw a turtle and...hmm...I can't remember what the other picture was, but it was a drawing contest. One that appeared in most magazines back then. You draw one of the pictures and send it in to see if you were talented enough to go to art school. Anyway, when my brother was done with it, I drew the turtle and then ran to my mother so she could mail it in for me. To my shock, she wadded it up and said that they wouldn't take cheaters. I was crushed when she wouldn't believe that I didn't trace it. I seldom ever drew again after that. My advice to myself would be--that it was all right. Know who you are and what you can do. Never give up on what you love because of someone else's actions or reactions. Believe in yourself when no one else does, because only you can make your dreams come true.
VH: Absolutely heartbreaking. I am happy to see that you continued with the arts despite that experience.
After a difficult day what do you do to recuperate? Does it work?
TP: Well, when I come home from a ten-hour shift at work, my cats greet me at the door. They meow and glare at me until I feed them and change their cat litter and then I trip over them, all the way into the kitchen. Oh wait, what was the question again? Right, well if it's a night shift, then I fix me a nice cup of coffee and then hit the computer to see what my friends were up to all day at Absolute Write, Twitter, and Facebook. And then, depending on my mood, I either watch a movie, read, draw, listen to music (this includes some of Bob Marley and Eric Clapton) and paint. All of those things are very relaxing to me and help me forget my aching feet and back. Plus a dear friend sent me a foot spa! And for a while I can escape this world. Around three or four in the morning, I start my second job--writing. This could go either way...relaxing/headbanging. A lot of coffee is involved. lol.
VH: You have great taste when it comes to music.
Thank you Tracy.
VH: Tracy, if you had two years left to live from this moment, what would you change about your life?
TP: I think that I would quit stalling. By that, I mean start living. When you're young you have dreams and you're biting at the bit to conquer the world, but as you grow older you realize that the world fights back and not only does it fight back, but it's bigger, meaner, and pretty much a bully. You end up hunkering down in a corner just fighting off the wolves. While I would want to spend as much time with my family as possible, I'd also want to break free and see some of the world (the only time I was out of TX was when I was too young to remember it). I want to stand where Michelangelo stood in the Sistine Chapel. I want to hear the rush of a waterfall and run through a field of wild flowers. Stand atop of a mountain or canoe down a river, but most of all I want to walk through a real castle (laugh at me if you will, but it's always been a childhood dream of mine). I think that I would dare to dream and actually have the courage to chase after it. I might even finish this freakin' novel. lol!
VH: I think you should find the castle you most want to visit, book a November flight and start pressing your shoes against those castle steps.
If you could go back in time to when you were seven years old, what wisdom or advice would you pass onto yourself?
TP: When I was young, somewhere around that age, I saw my brother drawing from a magazine. I looked over his shoulder and saw a turtle and...hmm...I can't remember what the other picture was, but it was a drawing contest. One that appeared in most magazines back then. You draw one of the pictures and send it in to see if you were talented enough to go to art school. Anyway, when my brother was done with it, I drew the turtle and then ran to my mother so she could mail it in for me. To my shock, she wadded it up and said that they wouldn't take cheaters. I was crushed when she wouldn't believe that I didn't trace it. I seldom ever drew again after that. My advice to myself would be--that it was all right. Know who you are and what you can do. Never give up on what you love because of someone else's actions or reactions. Believe in yourself when no one else does, because only you can make your dreams come true.
VH: Absolutely heartbreaking. I am happy to see that you continued with the arts despite that experience.
After a difficult day what do you do to recuperate? Does it work?
TP: Well, when I come home from a ten-hour shift at work, my cats greet me at the door. They meow and glare at me until I feed them and change their cat litter and then I trip over them, all the way into the kitchen. Oh wait, what was the question again? Right, well if it's a night shift, then I fix me a nice cup of coffee and then hit the computer to see what my friends were up to all day at Absolute Write, Twitter, and Facebook. And then, depending on my mood, I either watch a movie, read, draw, listen to music (this includes some of Bob Marley and Eric Clapton) and paint. All of those things are very relaxing to me and help me forget my aching feet and back. Plus a dear friend sent me a foot spa! And for a while I can escape this world. Around three or four in the morning, I start my second job--writing. This could go either way...relaxing/headbanging. A lot of coffee is involved. lol.
VH: You have great taste when it comes to music.
Thank you Tracy.
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Tracy Pittman resides in Texas where she writes horror, science fiction, and fantasy at night. During the day she works forty-hours a week as Head of Dept. at a drug store. She has written several short stories and is currently working on an apocalyptic/horror novel called, One Of Us. Tracy is also an artist and when not writing, she spends her time doing sketches, oil paintings, and ink drawings.
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