Who are you?

I don't know that anyone would confuse me with being creative.

Funny? Sure. Goofy? You bet. But creative? That's a stretch.

Given the chance, I'd probably eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day. Come to think of it, I DO eat the same thing for breakfast every day.

My idea of being creative is, maybe, mowing the lawn in the opposite direction than I normally mow. Seriously, there's not much creativity to be found here.

But I have some creative friends. One in particular recently caught my attention: Camille Claudel.

I don't know anyone named Camille Claudel. And yet, a donation was made in her name to my account. If you know me at all, you know by now that I need to know where to send the thank you card. So, I looked in the usual locations for Camille's name.

I checked my Outlook contacts, business cards, Holiday card mailing list, school registry. No luck.

I checked the city's employee list. There is an employee that shares the last name. But, his first name isn't Camille. And he doesn't cross-dress (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

So, now I'm perplexed. And a little nervous. Nervous along the lines of wondering if I need a PPO against this "suspicious person." Until I did a Google search. You gotta love Google.

It turns out that Camille Claudel is a pretty famous art student of a particularly famous artist named Auguste Rodin. Doesn't ring a bell? Don't worry, it didn't for me either...not at first.

Until a friend pointed out to me that my picture from the first blog of the new season looks strikingly similar to Rodin's "The Thinker."

I told you I'm not creative. Nor, it turns out, very smart.

But I am smart enough to know that the real Camille Claudel didn't make the donation. She passed away some time ago. So, who is this Camille Claudel?

It is taking me some time to put things together. But I think I have some ideas:

It could be one of my students from UM-Dearborn, where I teach as an adjunct professor. I know I shared a story or two during class. So maybe one of them wanted to make a donation, but go unnoticed so not to "unduly influence" their final grade?

Or it could be someone from the Paint Creek Center for the Arts. I've been working with the good people at Paint Creek on a possible partnership for the Old Stone School house. We have some really cool ideas coming together that might lead to an awesome artist community in Troy. I'll probably write about that another time. I know that I mentioned a few things about my training with a few of the Paint Creek board members. Maybe it is one of them?

I may never know who you are. And I may never know the names of the anonymous donors at the grocery store, or during a spin-a-thon, or during a bucket drive. But, know that it means a lot. And know that I am adopting the name of Camille Claudel in honor of you and all anonymous donations, by including the name on the t-shirt that I wear at the race.