KARL W . KAISER
My mother was a primary teacher and from the time I was a small child she encouraged creativity in our home . In the afternoons when my siblings and I arrived home from school , she would often have us work on art projects , from drawing to candle making ( maybe that is why I am drawn to wax !). My father was a working man and he encouraged me to find a working man ’ s trade . He often counseled me that if I found a trade first and then went on to pursue a dream , that I would always have something to fall back on in hard times . I believe this came from his formative years growing up in poor , rural areas and in a large family where they subsisted on his father ’ s meager pastor salary . Since I idolized my father what else was I to do except follow his advice ? I received my AA in Machine Shop Technology in the early 1980 ’ s and began a 25 year career at the same company working in a large machine shop . I spent those 25 years finding out what I really wanted to do and I will never regret them . They are an integral part of who I am now and how I arrived at being able to retire at a relatively young age and transition to a second career called ‘ artist ’. At the time I retired from company life , I was burning the candle at both ends and came to the realization that it was now or never .