Computer Keyboard Tapped Hidden Depths Of Creativity

Computers revolutionized Sue Turner’s life.

The clacking keyboard beat a steady tune of “You can do this, you can do this,” and Sue became a writer.

The screen displayed the sunset pinks and blues of her watercolors, and Sue became a commercial artist.

The printer spewed pages and pages of her poetry, and Sue became a publisher.

“The computer changed everything for me,” she says. “It’s just so much fun.”

Until the computer, Sue was strictly left-brain. She managed offices, worked in hospital administration, prepared income tax forms.

She was 57 and out of work three years ago when she bought a laptop.

“As soon as I got my hands on the keyboard, I thought, `I can write,”’ she says.

Soon after, gray days prompted her to pack her clothes, computer and golf clubs and head south from her Coeur d’Alene home. In an Arizona mobile home park laundry room, Sue discovered she could paint.

“I took a class. I’d never tried painting before,” she says, beaming. “It was just too neat.”

After three lessons, the teacher persuaded Sue to try to sell her watercolors at an art fair. Several sold.

“I thought, `This is easy,”’ Sue says.

A rapid and prolific painter and writer, Sue quickly accumulated dozens of soft scenes of cactuses, pansies, forests and lakes, and dozens of succinct poems.

Her poetry was as popular with publishers as her paintings were with art buyers. The Saturday Evening Post published her “How Now Dow?” in 1997.

“Stocks are up - then down

my head begins to pound,

eyes are hot and blurry

my mouth all dry and furry.

Dr. Greenspan, help me please!

I think I have Mad Cow Disease.”

Last summer, Sue merged her poetry and paintings on her computer in a flip book, “Tumblewords and Sage.” She copyrighted her work and squeezed 108 copies of the book from her printer.

It went on sale at Hastings and other area bookstores last month. Sue was so elated to see her work for sale that she saved one of her bar codes.

“Financially it doesn’t support me, but emotionally it does,” she says, adding that she lives on savings and online investments. “I love it. It’s so exciting. Nothing stays the same.”

Christmas spirit

Sure, it’s early. But if you start thinking and shopping now, you can stuff plenty of shoeboxes with toys, school supplies and personal items - combs, toothbrushes, etc. - for kids in war-torn or weather-ravaged countries around the world.

Life Care Center of Coeur d’Alene is collecting boxes as part of a nationwide effort by Life Care Centers of America to collect 100,000.

Samaritan’s Purse, a relief organization led by the Rev. Billy Graham’s son Franklin, will distribute the gifts to children in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Central America.

Don’t forget to add a picture of yourself and your address to each box. Children may want to write back.

The boxes go to the Life Care Center, 500 Aqua Ave., Coeur d’Alene. For details, call 762-1122.

Lost landmarks

I asked for the landmarks you miss and Coeur d’Alene’s Gail Somers quickly responded with the purple dinosaur that sat on a shop roof in Post Falls.

Among her other losses: Playland Pier, the Wilma Theater, The Brunswick Cafe and the Crystal Plunge.