Do what you love

He picked up a paintbrush at 76

In the United States, there is an old lady who everyone knows. Her full name was Anna Mary Robertson Moses, but she was known respectfully as "Grandma Moses." She was born to a poor farmer in Greenwich Village, New York, and her mother gave birth to 10 children. Moses had only a sporadic childhood education and left his parents at the age of 12 to earn money on someone else's farm. At 27, she married Thomas Moses, a Staunton, Va., man who was also a farmhand, and they both worked on a farm in Staunton's Shenandoah Valley. Like her mother, she also gave birth to 10 children.

Mrs. Moses returned to New York and lived on a farm in Eagle bridge, not far from her birth in Greenwich Village, for nearly 20 years. She spent her days mopping floors, milking cows, and canning vegetables and found time for the fun to embroider the countryside. After her husband died, she continued to run the farm with the help of her younger son. Later, due to old age, he had to retire and live with his daughter. At the age of 76, Mrs. Moses developed arthritis and had to give up embroidery because of the pain in her hands. But she loved art and did not stop, began to pick up a paintbrush.

Mrs. Moses shows her paintings locally, and her daughter takes them to the town's grocery store on consignment for $2 to $3 each. That meager income could provide basic living expenses for the 11 grandchildren she struggles to raise.

One day Louis Cardol, an art collector, was intrigued by the work displayed in the window of a grocery store. He bought it and asked for more. To help the talented Mrs. Moses, Ms. Cardol took her work to the gallery of art dealer OTT Kalil in New York. From then on, Mrs. Moses became more and more famous in the local art community.

A one-man show at the age of 80

When Mrs. Moses was over 80, she had a one-woman show in New York. It became big news and caused a sensation. Since then, she has become a celebrity, receiving numerous greeting cards every day. Her work is selling hot cakes in the art market. In many competitions, Mrs. Moses became a prize-winning "professional." Thanks to radio and television interviews, she is more famous than other artists.

In the eyes of the public, the most touching thing about Mrs. Moses is her relentless pursuit to break the barriers of age and education, and the most enviable thing is her great success and happy later life. Although she had never received formal and systematic artistic training, her love of beauty gave her amazing creative power. It's not easy for a 70-year-old man to create 1,600 paintings over the next 20 years. She kept her feet on the ground, taking one step at a time, starting by copying pictures and postcards from Clive and Ives, and then drawing on her early life on the Farm. Mrs. Moses's works are rich and colorful. There are depictions of the countryside in her childhood, records of her personal life, sentimental nostalgia, and longing for something eternal... Grandma Moses's landscapes are good at capturing the harmony between man and nature, reflecting the subtle differences in season, weather, and time. Through her discovery and perception, she creates a different kind of wonderful life with the brush and lets people see the hope of struggle and war success.

Mrs. Moses has appeared on the cover of Time and Life magazines, had her work shown at the leading MOMA in New York, been collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the White House, and had solo exhibitions from America to France and Britain. When Grandma Moses turned 100, the state of New York honored her birthday with a name called Grandma Moses Day. When Moses passed away at the age of 101, the United States Postal Service issued a special stamp in her honor. The centenarian left more than 1,000 oil paintings in her life, including "Crossing the River to See Grandma", "Catching the Thanksgiving Turkey" and "The Sugar Gathering in the Qi Tree Garden". From these titles, it is not difficult to appreciate her rustic and distinctive "country flavor". Perhaps surprisingly, more than 20 of them were painted after their 100th birthdays.

At 100 years old, people give directions

The 2001 exhibition "Grandma Moses in the 21st Century" at the Washington Museum included 87 of her classic paintings and relics collected at home and abroad. Among them, a postcard sent by Grandma Moses in 1960 stands out, attracting many viewers, especially young people, to stop and contemplate. Small as the postcard is, it tells a shocking and thought-provoking story

In Japan, there is a young man named Spring water up, in Sapporo medical college after graduation, to the hospital when the surgeon. However, he loved literature from an early age and dreamed of becoming a writer. What to do? Do you want to give up a career that pays well but you're bored with and pursue your goal, or do you want to make do with being a doctor? Very tangled up in the water decided to admire Moses' grandma for a long time to ask for advice, ask her guidance.

Reading the letter from the 28-year-old, the old lady couldn't help but think of her own life experience and was filled with emotion. Although already 100 years old, but still insisted on replying to the young man. On a blank postcard, she drew a barn symbolizing harvest and wrote, "Do what you love and God will be happy to open the door to success for you, even at 80." The message.

After receiving the postcard, Chun Shui is up to see the hope of struggle and success, rekindle the fire of passion of life, with Grandma Moses as an example, and finally become famous in the literary world. He is now known as Junichi Watanabe, the author of 50 novels and other works, including "Lost Garden," "Light and Shadow" and "Distant Sunset."

A famous man said it best: It is the thing you are most willing to do that is your true talent. There are no clear rules about what one should do and when. If we want to do this, we start now. Some people always complain: "it's too late", in fact, "now" is the best time. Every period of life is young and timely to a man who is truly pursuing something. Grandma Moses taught us that no matter how old you are, follow your dreams and you are likely to succeed.