Thursday, April 14, 2011

Art for art's sake

      Ok, I'm very sorry for last weeks trip into the land of the serious but sometimes having a blog like this is a chance to say something that's on your mind, and you readers could always skip back to previous weeks where I attempt humor to varying degrees of success, but we shall move on regardless.


      Who doesn't love art in some form or another? Two of my all time favorite works of art are "The Accolade" by Edmund Blair Leighton and "The Lady of Shalott" by my favorite artist John William Waterhouse which is a beautiful image taken from an equally stunning poem by Lord Alfred Tennison. Raise your hand if I just lost you.
      My point is that most people when they grow up lose any true interest in great art, witnessed by the number of you who just mentally raised your hands, but as children art is a true expression of feelings, thoughts and the human need to be creative. As adults we still have the need to be creative in some way or another. Whether it be writing, cooking, or craft projects etc, we have a need to create, and not finding an outlet for this basic human need can cause great frustration and much need for beer.
      If your a parent you've no doubt seen this in your children. As parents we are always quick to supply our little ones with a steady supply of crayons, mostly because they're cheap, but also because we inherently understand the need to create. At some point we will all buy our child the extra large box of crayons that requires a handle to carry and gives access to more colors than our computer monitors. Our child will pick about four of these to actually use leaving the rest to be snapped in half at some point creating the need for a new box of waxy love. The colors that are selected will get worn down leaving our children to rip off the colorful paper and leave it strewn around the room so it looks like they just just won the Super Bowl and their stuffed animals threw them a ticker tape parade. When tearing off the paper isn't quite enough they will inevitably come to us to "sharpen" the nub of a crayon. Have you actually ever used a crayon sharpener? Even if you do get it to work properly the wax stuck every where is horrible, it's easier to just buy a new box, which we will anyway.
      We should be a little smarter now, as we already have a bin of broken crayons the young artist really only needs a few colors to work with. So we buy the eight pack of primary colors which will also end up broken in the bin of many colors. Crayons are cheap so we keep replacing them until the shoebox, or whatever we use, is filled with a technicolor garbage dump of little wax corpses...we salute you noble "burnt sienna" you never reached your true potential.
      This is all well and good, we know this is all part of the kid-dom but then grandma notices the budding artist and wants to help little Bobby Picasso reach his full potential so she buys them paints. Spill-able, hard to clean, supposedly water soluable paints...yeah grandma!
      As parents we are all WELL aware of the need to display these great works of art on "The Louvre de Fridge" Ah yes great works of art held up by refridgerator magnets and covering every inch of the ice box, making you wonder why you made such an effort to pick out just the right color to match the kitchen when you can't see a single inch of it now. Of course this is nothing compared to the fact that every single time you want a drink or a snack half a dozen of these prescious paintings fall off the fridge making you chase paper and magnets under the fridge. It's not worth the effort to go into the fridge, which does make it an effective dieting tool though.
      When they begin school and start doing art projects there as well as at home you then need to find boxes and folders to store this ever growing collection in. Much like the crayons and their stuffed animal collection these almost seem to multiply of their own accord making your cupboards or the underneath of your bed a lovely cluttered mess of priceless memories. Years down the line you will struggle to remember what most of these objects d'art were supposed to be, but trying to recognize what they are at the time of their creation is a parental test in and of itself.
      "Look what I made mommy."
       "Oh what a lovely whale...dog...alien..."
      "No mommy it's daddy don't you see?"
      "Huh, actually I do now that you mention it....those are very nice stink lines"
       "Yeah mommy, this was on chili night."
      Of course we as parents were no different and we covered our fridge in every manner and color of crayoned creature imaginable. That is until our oldest decided to skip the middleman. One morning said child had woke up early, escaped from his room and removed all his artwork from the refridgerator so he had room to draw puppies directly onto, and all over the appliance itself...Yeah creativity!
       He was scolded and told in NO uncertain terms that "coloring on the fridge was bad" he whined and whimpered but very clearly got the message as the next day upon waking we found the kitchen wall had now been covered in what appeared to be primitive cave art. He explained cheerfully that he had done it to say he was sorry for crayoning the refridgerator, and did we like it? So we took the crayons away from him at night, but we could not control the boys artistic urges and his need to create...yup, we forgot about grandma's paints....Yeah! Good thing it was the weekend and we had two whole days to clean up the contents of eight colorful bottles of paint, not too mention a child who looked like he came from the cantina scene in Star Wars as well as one very ticked off cat....red was soooo not his color.
      I always loved art myself, I went from coloring to drawing then onto ceramics with my grandmother, which by the way I won several ribbons for...yes I'm bragging...let's see your ribbons...then onto platic model kits. I used to have dozens of completed hot rods and muscle cars all painted with loving care and attention to detail...and then blown up by firecrackers or eaten by my baby brother, hmmm should have added that to my chewing blog. In fact I kept building models after my first son was born. I had even progressed to using an airbrush and mixing my own colors by then, and yes won some ribbons for those as well...don't want to hear it, I still don't see your awards.
      My toddler son adored my models...especially when the paint was wet, and boy was that kid fast. I can't tell you how many times I had to paint, then sand off tiny fingerprints, then paint again...wash, rinse, repeat until the model was unusable because it either had so many layers of paint on it that it look as plastic as a Kia or I hand actually sanded a hole in it, actually making it look amazingly close to the rust riddled vehicles here in the north-east. Eventually I gave up models....well plastic ones anyway, I'm still rather fond of the ones who work for Victoria's Secret....who actually maybe a little plastic too....moving on. I decided to stick with drawing and writing for my creative outlet, and even gave up drawing eventually to focus on my love for writing, but I could never give up trying to create something and I sure hope my kids won't either.
      It's not always about the kids, when it comes to creativity they will find their way and their own medium, but I see a great many adults who are frustrated by not being able to express themselves. Don't think for a minute it's a waste of energy or time to find your own way to express yourself because much like sexuality when you try to surpress something that is part of your very being it can manifest itself in negative ways. Also don't think that just because you don't have any talent that you shouldn't try, look at Nicolas Cage it didn't stop him.


Great art picks up where nature ends.  ~Marc Chagall
     
     

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