Epiphany
I had an epiphany today. It occurred outside the ladies room of one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco. (The restaurant is called Delancy Street. It's run by a rehab organization of the same name to train recovering addicts for jobs in the upscale restaurant business. The food is consistently very good, the prices are about half what you'd pay in "regular" restaurants, and the service is always courteous and attentive.) I was looking at a piece of art on the wall - abstract watercolor pages cut in strips and then assembled in basketweave fashion - and I thought to myself, "I could do that!" And not only could I do it, I wanted to dash home and get started.
Now, until that moment, I've always thought of art as something artists did. And by artist, I meant someone with great talent and technical skill, neither of which I possess. I cannot do a representational drawing to save my life, and I have no training in any medium but pottery. And even though I've studied that craft for 4 years or so, I consider myself an advanced beginner, at best. What I know is like a cup of water in a large, deep lake. Not that that bothers me - I like the idea that I can keep learning for the rest of my life and still not master everything there is to know about ceramics. However, looking at that paper assemblage made me rethink my idea of artist on the spot. I realized in a flash that art is something that people do. Some do it much better than others, and there are many kinds of art I will never be able to do, but that doesn't make me not an artist. What a rush to have that understanding!!
No, I didn't dash home and try my hand at paper art. My husband I and continued with our plan for the day, which included going to the De Young Museum and seeing a truly amazing exhibit of Yves St. Laurent couture, and another of sculpture/large installations by Maya Lin - both of which are excellent examples of art I will never be able to do. However, when we did get home, I found some paper in the closet in my daughter's old room left over from her drawing days, and a little bitty set of watercolors, and did some orange and red squiggles and blobs on one piece of paper, and some blue and green squiggles and blobs on another, and then cut them up and wove them together while I watched 60 Minutes. And while each individual piece of paper looked pretty lame in its unaltered state, the finished product looks pretty damn good. Now I need some actual watercolor paper, and some better watercolors, and some way of fastening the edges that doesn't involve Scotch tape, and I think I may be able to make some interesting stuff. And it doesn't matter than I can't draw anything more elaborate than a stick figure. I'm an artist!