Sometimes an artist

By Scott Parkin, staff writer

Learning art and literature isn't something limited to younger people. Pictured is Rosemarie Forsythe, an artist and juried member of the Reston Art Gallery.

After I retired, I returned to something I had set aside decades earlier: becoming an artist. In 1969, I moved to rural Maine and spent a year living with my cousin and his wife, both of whom were artists.

I apprenticed myself to them. I drew landscapes and figures daily, painted dozens of watercolors and learned printmaking. Nine months after moving in, I joined a student sculptor from a nearby college for a joint gallery opening.

I sold one painting. To my dad.

My career as an artist was put on hold. Forty-four years later, retirement gave me another chance.

The Senior Citizens Higher Education Act allows Virginia residents age 60 and older to audit courses at public colleges and universities without paying tuition, subject to certain conditions. Many studies have linked lifelong learning to better health, greater adaptability and a stronger sense of purpose. I can attest to that.

The Northern Virginia Community College application process for its Senior Citizen Tuition Waiver program is simple. I signed up for a two-semester drawing course and, at the same time, took basic watercolor courses at Reston Community Center. I was drawing and painting again.

Still, I wanted another creative challenge. In high school, two of my best friends fancied themselves good writers. We made a friendly bet that one of us would write the great American novel within our lifetime.

George Mason University has an outstanding English department and a well-respected creative writing program. I applied for undergraduate admission so I could audit courses in the department through the university’s Senior Citizen Waiver Program. Mason also offers writing and arts courses through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, but those courses generally are not free.

At 68, I became a Mason undergraduate, auditing several courses in writing and American literature and writing a few short stories and nonfiction essays. I also took studio drawing and physical education courses, but I have not started a novel.

At my 60th high school reunion last June, I asked whether my former classmates had written a great American novel.

The bet lives on.

Scott L. Parkin is co-founder of Reston for a Lifetime (www.RestonforaLifetime.org/), a nonprofit organization with a mission to educate and inform our community’s residents about aging in place.