"It Started with a Typo" by Arlene Mandell
– the accidental grammarian
A “shirt” with no “r” was all the opportunity this New York refugee required to help dotting her “I’s” and crossing her “t’s” transform her into a “Bahama Mama.”
Arlene Mandell is an artist in Linville, North Carolina. Her portraits are displayed year-round at the Carlton Gallery in Banner Elk. A native New Yorker, she lovingly taught in Manhattan’s Head Start program. Switching gears, she joined a travel magazine in Miami, Florida, where she met the adventurous Captain Dan. Their permanent relocation to the mountains inspired a love of writing. Her memoirs “Eye of the Dolphin,” “Artist Borne,” “Gobsmacked in the Gulfstream,” and “Renegade Daughter” appear on the “6-minute Stories” podcast, and/or in Second Spring and Gateways anthologies.
Author’s Talk
A close friend asked me how I've managed to reinvent myself several times. I hadn't thought about my life that way, only that its current keeps changing direction. I have learned to let it take me where it will; they call this "flow." As a native New Yorker, I started my career path as a teacher in the Head Start program in Lower Manhattan. The current changed when, unexpectedly, I discovered an ability for drawing and painting portraits. The artist in me blossomed at the same time I was teaching. I loved working with little ones weekdays--in my full-time job--then immersing myself in artwork at night and on weekends. Into this contented life came a radical change--I thought disastrous at the time--which turned me into a proofreader for the next 10 years in Miami, Florida. An even greater, surprising change of direction awaited me when my new-found Florida mate, Captain Dan, and I relocated to western North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains. After living in cities our whole lives, we fell in love with mountain folk and mountain life while spending summers there. Finding a spirituality I had not known before in the big city, I continued to paint, but had an urge to create a catalog of my personal favorite paintings to give to friends. Then, I thought, why not include some of the extraordinary and unusual events of my life. But how? Intensely motivated, I sat at my desk to start writing down my life's stories and could not stop; I craved the interaction of other writers. A notice caught my eye in the Boone publication, MOUNTAIN TIMES, about "Sue Spirit's Writing Workshop” at the Lois Harrill Center in Vilas. I showed up the following week with an introductory story to read aloud. It went well; I was warmly welcomed and accepted into the already established group. The camaraderie and creative inspiration I enjoy with them has continued for years. Incredibly, this new direction of writing had taken on a life of its own at the ripe age of 75! Who knew this was lurking inside me? Writing and artwork consume every moment of every day; I remain in the flow. - Arlene Mandell
Arlene Mandell
