I taught creative and other writing classes for a long time, and one of the exciting and interesting things for me were the people I met who had no idea they were talented.

I nicknamed them the incubas because they seemed to be in incubation.

Talented artists and writers are very often convinced they can’t make a living doing their art and are pretty often relentlessly undermined by the people around them – most often men – urging them to get a day job or ignoring their work or assuring them they would starve to death and end up living on the street in the cold if they didn’t get a real job or have a real career.

I know this fear well, Maria and I have lived with it for much of our lives.

Sometimes these remarkable people woke up, and sometimes they didn’t, depending on their courage, commitment, and talent. And on the encouragement, they did or didn’t receive.

Emily Gold is young and impressive.

She reminds me of them in some ways; even though I don’t know her that well, she is a member of Maria’s Belly Dancing Class, and the two of them have become close friends. And she is practically bursting with creative skill and vision.

Emily is one of the most talented artists I have had the pleasure to know. She just is great at everything she does.

Like many gifted people, she is always on the lookout for new ideas, stimulating classes, and, I imagine, one or two artists groups for support.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about classes, even though I taught one for years, in a college and out of my home. Ttoo often they are about people making money to teach other people things they may never be able to do.

I’ve never taken a writing class in my life, I’m firmly in the Beavis & Butthead camp because I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, I’m free to do what I want.

Because I am stupid, I am free.

I don’t want to slide on other people’s ideas. I want to stand or fall on my own. But that’s just me. Most people don’t see it that way.

Emily has a beautiful blog and has just announced her January Custom Collage class. Her virtual courses are increasingly popular and are inexpensive – $60 and very effective. I know, I took one.

Emily is one of those creatives you can learn from just by being around her. The rest is a bonus.

I have no idea if Emily knows that she can make it as an artist and baker on her own; I’ve never asked her or discussed it with her.

I hope she does know because her gifts are very unusual and run very deep, from the spectacular food she bakes to her beautiful and spirited collages to her strikingly original are books and videos. I’m not sure I know anyone gifted at so many different things.

When I first met Emily, I scoffed at her muffins and scones. It didn’t sound like art to me until I ate one.

In my experience with artists, they usually figure out sooner or later that they have to work for themselves; there are too many peckerheads, toothless ducks, and little people in the world eager to tell creative people what to do crap on their work.

The really good artists have no choice when all is said and done: they just can’t take it anymore. They have to do their work.

They really can gum you to death.

That’s how I got to be a book writer, working for myself. I get scared sometimes when I look at my bank account, but I have no regrets. Not one. Neither does Maria. We share this great and wonderful journey of the soul.

I’d had enough of those people and their tiny ideas and greedy souls and didn’t want to die in that condition.

When I started my blog, it was a great rush to freedom. I swore I would never let any more peckerheads tell me what to write. I meant it, too.

Emily is diverse, experimenting, reaching out. You can see her evolution on her blog, papercakescissors.com.

She is an accomplished and successful baker, selling her work online and at the very popular Bennington Farmer’s Market. On the side, she’s managed to crank out a beautifully constructed and written blog, which seems to me to be getting better all of the time.

I like Emily very much, but she is about more than baking and collage; she is about our need for creative people to know their worth and take the plunge. They are needed.

She’s not looking to me for direction in life. It’s her business, not mine, and her decision, not mine.

I hope it happens. Take a look at the blog, and if you’re interested, take a look at the class. You’ll learn about a lot more than college.