Here's Part 3:

I couldn’t really imagine myself becoming a professional artist even though life coaching had revealed that the answer to the question, “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” was Art.  It hadn’t yet occurred to me that becoming a professional artist was a possibility.
 
I knew that I would prefer work using my artistic side.  So I decided to become an interior designer.  I took a class at the Art Institute of Colorado.  The class was great.  I leveraged that class into a job at a local furniture store that did occasional design work for their clients. 
 
I think eventually I would have become a decent interior designer but with this job came the realization that my interior design business would suffer from the same flaw as my legal business.  That is, I knew very few people in Denver and thus had no potential book of business.  So I moved on, still looking for my Second Act.
 
Sigh.
 
I had been creating colleges for years due to my friendship with a former professional artist and art instructor, Martha.  She started me creating art when we both lived in Ouray.  Here’s that mini-saga.
 
I had driven over to her home one day when she was creating collages for her daughter and son in law.  I wanted just to talk but she was busy creating art.  So she sat me down and invited me to create a collage.  I resisted, saying, "You know I stink at art."  She persisted.  I capitulated.
 
For the three hours, I was in the “zone”.  I had no idea how much time had passed.  My coffee was cold and the afternoon was gone by the time I looked up.  

Best of all, the piece I created was good. Very good.  I still have it.  Because Martha had been a professional artist, she had all the art “stuff”. We matted the piece and framed it.  I took home a completed piece of art in one happy, fun, escapist afternoon.
 
I was hooked.
 
I continued to create collages after we both moved to Denver. 
 
Eventually, Martha said. “You need to go sell your art or we’re going to find you at age 80 buried under a stack of your canvases.”  Me: “I’m not that good.”  Martha: “Yes, actually you are.” 
 
So I began at the beginning, with the Summer Art Market, a tented art show, which is put on by the Art Students League of Denver. 

I sold 13 pieces!  

It was a sign.

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