Melanie Rogers:  

May - 2009 I moved to suburbs of Chicago after graduating from UF. Next it was Fredericksburg, VA. I came home to St. Augustine in 1984 & I love it. Melanie Rogers is the name I became known as while chasing the dream of supporting myself as an artist. I paint portraits & my art is shown around town. I paint for my supper at Zhanra's Restaurant. I have a blog with more of my thoughts about my art & life, though I've neglected it since finding facebook & this. I like Classmates better! Maybe I'll get a free year if they read that. ;> I am in the phone book. Soon I'll even be in Yellowbook. I avoided computers all these years, but I'm here now. Until about a month ago I wouldn't even put an answering message on my cell phone. I even avoided owning a cell for a long time. Over the years, I have met some wonderful people and I have really great friends. But this must be a nostalgic stage in life. Around 55 would be a natural time to wonder how life treated the kids we used to be, and it's at least half time in the game, if not later. What else do we want to do? After college my relationships were never very deep or truly open. Over the last ten years this has begun to change. Especially in the past five years, I've been on a journey of recovering, or perhaps more accurately put, discovering a genuine life. I could almost say I feel like I've stepped out of virtual reality into something very different. Recently I finally decided to open the laptop I bought from a friend. It had been in a box for a couple of years. I felt repelled, maybe even repulsion, for computers. A combination of recent events have launched me in this new direction. Back to a few factoids. I like to write & am philosophical. I lead a couple of women's groups. I still love Jesus. He stuck with me through it all. The triune God is an amazing being and He is the center of my life. People are my greatest interest. God's art in everything around me would be my next interest. That does cover an endless list of things. This planet is so magical & beautiful. And I mean the things we take for granted, the life cycle of trees, everything, seed after its own kind, tropical fish, flowers, woods, the ways water collects and travels around us, clouds, all the heavenly lights as we observe them from the surface of this planet. I like to think about all of the galaxies, how unfathomably huge, in reality, those little twinkling spots are. Don't get me started on astronomy and the properties of light. I had the joy of seeing on an enormous screen, the photos that are returning from the cameras that have gone so far it boggles my mind. And they are able to send these images back across all that space. This whole idea of what our eyes can reach, or what reaches them, connects to my thoughts about art. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, we have inside of us universes of human cells which follow similar laws and formation. The science of DNA and genetics, whoa. This isn't, strictly speaking, typical facts, if there are typical stories in these boxes. But this is about me. I have no idea how all the chemistry and electrical impulses and intricate systems of my body work. My body just knows what to do without my conscious brain. This brings to mind one of the reasons I love art. It is a portal between the conscious and subconscious. My inner being pours through my brushes. Somehow, pigment and paper can be used to reach into our souls, through our eyes. Some of my essence blends with an image and freezes a moment outside of time. When I paint, I sometime feel I have slipped outside of time with the image. I frequently find I am not aware of time passing. I love watercolors. I never studied art, it appeared almost mystically. Life flows from my brushes and surprises me. My gift, my talent, whatever it is, emerged after I was told cancer would soon take my life. That radiology report, and the human interpretation of it, only gave me a death bed experience and then let me live. That is a blessing in disguise. It was 11 years ago now. Everyday is a gift. My life is overflowing with celebration and blessings. I have many deep, funny, and reliable friends. But I lost touch with high school friends. I am curious what happened in every one's life. Reunions are like trying to drink out of a waterfall. There's so much there, but hard to catch a drink. I'd prefer one glass at a time. Only a small percentage make it to reunions anyway. Many very interesting people didn't graduate. I couldn't make last two reunions & at the others I was in difficult places in my private life. We grew up swimming together in the same little pond of life. Connections at that time of our lives are shallow and also profound. I find that most important truth is a paradox. I wanted children and went through the whole infertility nightmare. I was trying to adopt when they said I was dying. That closed the nursery door of my life forever. But it did not close the door on my life. It set into motion a great many major changes. My marriage of 23 years ended. But the half full/empty glass is so true. I miss not having children, and in some ways I never grew up, because I didn't face the challenges of being a parent. Speaking of parents, both "Coach Walls", and my Mom, Faye, who retired from teaching at Nease, are still here. I love them. Let's see, how about some regular, typical facts. I learned to snow ski at the age of 29. Those were exciting vacations. I went to Israel for a brief study in the American Biblical Institute in Jerusalem. They showed me Israel in a way few tourist ever see. I had a very brief time in Italy, hardly counts. I think Greece would be another place I'd like to see. Ancient history and so much beauty would be a wonderful combination. I had the opportunity to drive around the USA and covered a lot of...Expand for more