My mother encouraged it so much. She was so supportive. Even if as a kid, I would do the dumbest trick, which now that I look back on some things, she would love it, she would say that’s amazing, or if I’d make the ugliest drawing, she would hang it up. She was amazing.

Blaine is crediting his mother’s unconditional encouragement as a formative force behind his creativity and confidence. The examples—“the dumbest trick” and “the ugliest drawing”—stress that her support was not contingent on excellence; she validated the impulse to try, perform, and make things. In retrospect, he recognizes that this kind of praise functions as emotional scaffolding: it turns experimentation into something safe, even celebrated, and helps a child persist through awkward early attempts. The quote also frames artistic development as relational—talent is nurtured by attention and belief—casting his mother as an enabling audience whose enthusiasm helped transform play into vocation.