From time to time I am asked about the title of my blog "Dust Off the Butterfly" and thought I would take a post to explain it.
When I was about 12 or 13, (perhaps like many kids) I decided I wanted to change my first name. I wanted to be called "Dusty". I asked (or probably told) my parents to start calling me by this name. It didn't work for long, however, to make it into a joke to be remembered to this day, my dad decided to call my brother "Dirty" - get it? Dusty and Dirty? We humored him, by signing an Easter card with a pecan roll egg (I think it was) - from 'Dusty and Dirty'. That was kinda the end of being called Dusty, although I have often used it with the word Papillon - as I have always liked the movie with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, the protagonist in that tale being one who just had the need to escape and be free, therefore 'Dusty Papillon' - my pseudo name! Ha!
So - knowing that butterflies flit from flower to flower - and know it or not - I recently retired from teaching elementary school and was leaving my beloved Colorado to live in Kansas (BTW - middle of nowhere, where I like it alot!) AND returning to my first and foremost passion - ART - I use the title to mean just that. 'Dusting' off the butterfly, tongue in cheek - returning to practicing my craft, or dusting myself off, so to speak, to get back to a place in my life where I was happiest.
So now YOU know.
When I was about 12 or 13, (perhaps like many kids) I decided I wanted to change my first name. I wanted to be called "Dusty". I asked (or probably told) my parents to start calling me by this name. It didn't work for long, however, to make it into a joke to be remembered to this day, my dad decided to call my brother "Dirty" - get it? Dusty and Dirty? We humored him, by signing an Easter card with a pecan roll egg (I think it was) - from 'Dusty and Dirty'. That was kinda the end of being called Dusty, although I have often used it with the word Papillon - as I have always liked the movie with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, the protagonist in that tale being one who just had the need to escape and be free, therefore 'Dusty Papillon' - my pseudo name! Ha!
So - knowing that butterflies flit from flower to flower - and know it or not - I recently retired from teaching elementary school and was leaving my beloved Colorado to live in Kansas (BTW - middle of nowhere, where I like it alot!) AND returning to my first and foremost passion - ART - I use the title to mean just that. 'Dusting' off the butterfly, tongue in cheek - returning to practicing my craft, or dusting myself off, so to speak, to get back to a place in my life where I was happiest.
So now YOU know.
Butterfly in Aunt Jane's Flower Garden
4 comments:
I always wondered... but hadn't asked. Thanks! I'm glad you're doing the things that make you happy.
Great story!! So now I know a bit more about you...
I was a Sandy for a while... Didn't need to change my last name though.... my maiden name was Sandy Beach... (Ha... that's because I surfed and thought it would be a cool name to go with my passion.)
Never even thought about doing it later in life when I retired from elementary ed, though!!
Thanks, "Dusty", for telling the tale. Your painting do have beautiful delicate wings that soar!!
Hi Dusty,
As once said-
"And that my friends is the rest of the story" and a good one at that.
One must remember that the past makes the future.
Click Theartbrush,to see.
Happy brushing.
Pete,Theartbrush
Now I know more about you too! What a nice story. I'm happy you love Kansas. People ask how I could have moved from Maui to North Idaho..... I just say, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". You could never get me to leave this bit of paradise I am in now and I think that is how you feel too!
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