Stick em up or the first time I called myself an artist

I signed onto my site and wow, there were 10 encouraging comments. I feel, well, encouraged and strangely naked. It's almost like the moment in the movie Julie and Julia, when she has a comment and it isn't from her mother. Thanks for the comments and happy new year to everyone. 

I am going to be in a show at the end of January with a theme of Montreal. I am trying not to do my usual procrastination, wait to the last minute and paint all night. Guess what I used to do in school. With great optimism I had plans to drive around the city and take pictures on Sunday because parking is free until 1:00 pm. I would just jump in and out of the car snapping pictures of the sun streaming through the buildings and beautiful shadows on the snow. It didn't quite work out that way. Parking was still free but most of my pictures were of machines cleaning up the mess that Mother nature dumped on us. I spotted this woman walking on the side and pulled over because I am a law abiding citizen and wouldn't want to cause an accident. See the car lights to left. That's the lights of the police car who passed me, drove on for 2 blocks, made a dangerous u-turn and headed straight for my parked car. "What are you taking a picture of" he demanded. I felt so guilty that I was ready to confess to any crime he could think of. I said the first thing that came to my mind "I am an artist". He looked at me paused and said okay and left. He then followed me for 13 blocks until he decided to put on his lights, showed his importance and sped off. I thought about this. This was the first time that I called myself an artist out loud to a stranger and it felt good. Also if you are an artist it explains any strange behaviours - good to know.