I'm an Artist

Car Wash, Tioga TX. Throughout elementary and middle school, my friends called me an "artist." I always shook my head at that. I just liked drawing cartoons, animating flip books, taking photos, shooting 8mm film, painting models, and playing horns. "Art" was something girls did. In third grade, we had a project where girls got to paint clay pots which would be fired at a kiln, and boys got to do math puzzles. I wanted to paint a pot. I even asked aloud if I could do that with the girls, even though that made me itch a little. No. That's for the girls. In fourth grade, my parents found chalk sketches a friend of mine and I had made in our clubhouse, with kids peeing on other kids. They were greatly worried, and I had to bring each sketch before them and explain it, which I found both ear-burningly embarrassing and mystifying. I thought, "It's somebody peeing on somebody else. That's funny. I'm not sure how else to explain this." They asked if my friend and I peed on each other, and I…