The Artist into Writer When Creating is like Playing

by JEAN REQUA LUBIN

Creativity in any form can be rewarding, uplifting and gratifying. I have always felt this way, and it started early at age ten when I wrote and illustrated my own horse stories. It’s fascinating when we, as artists, often return to what we did as children — an early indication of one’s interest and passion.

Visual art has always been with me — the desire to recreate on paper or canvas what you see before you — to try to capture in drawing or paint the image, but to also translate it with your own interpretation. When a painting is successful, the artist is so pleased when it finds its way into a show or is given an award. It validates the artist’s efforts and achievement. For me, I must confess that painting, while enjoyable, is seldom easy. So I determined to try my hand at writing fiction. When I unboxed my new rose-gold laptop computer, I was full of anticipation, but very unsure about my ability or chance of success. Now 173 pages into this novel, the exhilaration is absolutely unexpected. I wake up in the middle of the night composing dialogue. It’s like play. I want to do it all the time.

For 26 years I was an Official Court Reporter for a San Diego Superior Court judge. It was a career full of courtroom drama, from violent displays of temper to heartbreaking tragedy. And all of this has found its way into my fictional novel, a suspenseful courtroom story which has evolved on its own into a romance. The heroine/protagonist is, of course, a court reporter (and oil painter), who realizes that her judge is corrupt and her love interest is an attorney for the mafia — thus the title, The Court Reporter’s Tightrope . One of the illustrations in the novel is an image of a painting that Margeaux (the heroine) painted, her copy of a famous Andrew Loomis painting, Underwater Fantasy .

I plan to finish this adventure by the end of the year when I hope the book will find its way to a literary agent. So here’s to all of our creativity, whether we’re visual artists, musicians, dancers or writers. And thanks to A&E for giving us a voice.

jeanlubin.com