The Vision and The Realization
50 years. 50 years between the vision and the beginning of it’s realization.
I didn’t even know it could be realized. In fact, it was almost immediately dismissed, and forgotten about until recently. Here’s a short version:
The Story
I was probably somewhere between 8 and 12. Momma had bought me a scrapbook… One of the old kind, large format with paper pages. The cover was green with gold detailing. It was meant for keepsakes like photos, letters (yes, those ancient, hand written missives created with old fashioned pen and paper), movie or theater or baseball game ticket stubs and the like.
I was grateful to momma for the gift and decided that my first entry into this beautiful scrapbook would be a drawing of her by me. I was determined that it would be lifelike, and was sorely disappointed in the result.
So disappointed that I asked if I could take art lessons and learn to draw. At some point after that my wish was granted. There was only one problem–the teacher thought I wanted to learn to paint. She asked me to draw something so I could paint it and… I couldn’t draw (or thought I couldn’t).
Impasse
There’s more to the story–why is it that we think art skills are something humans are either born knowing or not? We don’t think that about walking, cooking or mathematics, but somehow we feel shame if we can’t draw or paint like a master from the get-go.
Food for thought.
I Can Learn. I Did Learn.
Fast forward to today. A master teacher explained in simple terms how to draw first an eye, then a nose, and a mouth. Voilà!
The vision begins to be realized. I shall someday draw my mother, God willing. And if not, I know it wasn’t because I couldn’t.
It will simply be because I didn’t.
