My husband used to say. when we'd go flea marketing, "I could do that if..."
He could be talking about wooden yard cutouts, or concrete statues, or handmade pottery, or plaster busts, or just about any handcraft.
His "if" was usually
"If I had the tools."
"If I had the equipment."
"If I had the space"
I was usually the penny pinching bully who wouldn't "let" him have the whatever he wanted for something he might do. Never mind that he probably never would do any of it.
I knew he wouldn't.
I made this judgement because he could have done many of the things using the tools at hand, but because they weren't specialty tools, he 'couldn't.'
Art doesn't work that way. If you have a need in your soul to create, you create. You don't wait for tools or stop for argument. If the need is in you and has to get out, you use what's at hand and do the best you can.
Period.
I know this, because I write. I write in all conditions, under any, many circumstances. I HAVE dived into trash cans for something to write on. I have used a mascara brush to jot down notes for a plot twist that just came to me as I was waiting in line. I have written with crayon, with full-fledged permanent marker, with broken pencils where I've chipped and peeled the wood away from the lead with my teeth and fingernails, because the words need to get OUT.
If I had no tools or equipment, I created some, I found some, I made some.
The same can be said for those who want to dance, or design, or act, cook, or do any other creative, expression.
There is no "if" in making art.
I'm reminded of this today watching my granddaughter.
She draws.
She paints.
She has taught herself to use the Paint program on the computer. She knows more of how to get it to do what she wants than I do.
If she finds an ink pen, a crayon, a marker, a burned stick, a charcoal briquet, she picks it up and draws a line or a circle with it.
If she has no paper to draw on, she uses a sidewalk, a rock, a board, a wall.
There is no "if" in this child when it comes to her art.
"If" she has no other legacy, I hope this is what she gets from Mammaw.
There is no "if" in "art."
He could be talking about wooden yard cutouts, or concrete statues, or handmade pottery, or plaster busts, or just about any handcraft.
His "if" was usually
"If I had the tools."
"If I had the equipment."
"If I had the space"
I was usually the penny pinching bully who wouldn't "let" him have the whatever he wanted for something he might do. Never mind that he probably never would do any of it.
I knew he wouldn't.
I made this judgement because he could have done many of the things using the tools at hand, but because they weren't specialty tools, he 'couldn't.'
Art doesn't work that way. If you have a need in your soul to create, you create. You don't wait for tools or stop for argument. If the need is in you and has to get out, you use what's at hand and do the best you can.
Period.
I know this, because I write. I write in all conditions, under any, many circumstances. I HAVE dived into trash cans for something to write on. I have used a mascara brush to jot down notes for a plot twist that just came to me as I was waiting in line. I have written with crayon, with full-fledged permanent marker, with broken pencils where I've chipped and peeled the wood away from the lead with my teeth and fingernails, because the words need to get OUT.
If I had no tools or equipment, I created some, I found some, I made some.
The same can be said for those who want to dance, or design, or act, cook, or do any other creative, expression.
There is no "if" in making art.
I'm reminded of this today watching my granddaughter.
She draws.
She paints.
She has taught herself to use the Paint program on the computer. She knows more of how to get it to do what she wants than I do.
If she finds an ink pen, a crayon, a marker, a burned stick, a charcoal briquet, she picks it up and draws a line or a circle with it.
If she has no paper to draw on, she uses a sidewalk, a rock, a board, a wall.
There is no "if" in this child when it comes to her art.
"If" she has no other legacy, I hope this is what she gets from Mammaw.
There is no "if" in "art."
