Mark Prior’s Painting and Book
My painting that was recently accepted to be on the cover of the Phoenix Writer’s Club’s Desert Willow magazine. It was meant to give some relief to those hot days of summer. Also, you see the cover of my recently published creative non-fiction anthology: The Million Dollar Educations.
People ask me questions like “when did you become an author?” or “how long did it take you to write the book?” Now that I’m starting to display this painting, they might ask the same questions about my painting. Well… I painted rental houses back in the 70’s and my work life included technical writing and software development. Do those count?
Shortly after I retired, I went to a “sip wine and paint” event and, with some basic instruction, painted this painting in a matter of 2 or 3 hours. I think it was the first time I realized that I could have fun using my creativity for other than creating software and maintaining and painting houses. You’ll notice there are no houses in this picture!
Since then, I have joined and am an active member in several writing groups including The Phoenix Writers Club, where I receive inspiration, advice and encouragement to explore a wide variety of types of writing e.g. (fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, science fiction, etc.). I also haven’t given up on painting, music, screenplays, etc.
I came up with the content, name and cover design for The Million Dollar Educations mainly because I’ve always wanted to be a teacher and each story teaches a lesson.
Also, I live downtown and sometimes walk to Press Coffee. The NBC Channel 12 News studio is in the same building. The outdoor sign has the NBC Peacock proudly displayed in living color. That probably helped inspire me.
You may see the similarity to my book cover where the different colored spines, each with a different short story title, symbolize the diversity of the stories and the target audiences. The yellow biplane below symbolizes creativity which was required for me to write these creative non-fiction stories and by stunt pilots that often flew this model. I would also like to give kudos to Miblart for producing the front and back cover art and for working with me through many design iterations.
The nine non-fiction stories vary widely, from WWII aviation to history before, during and after The Great Depression through child and teenage eyes, and exciting and sometimes comical adventures as told in Trombones, Butter Knives and Mini golf and Spearing and Dipping.
