THE AMUSING MUSINGS OF AN ARTISTIC ZEBRA
More info, I am a retired scientist who has morphed into a creative person and have a fairly open view on #creativity. Science to artistic pursuits is not an unusual transition, I suspect that piles of very serious papers have been written on the subject of the similarity of the relevant neurological pathways and other very learned subjects. Some of my other claims to artistic knowledge stem from my exposure to all things artistic as a child and rather unexpectedly becoming the "Gallerista", owning and directing a series of galleries in Canada, Mexico and the US. The last has certainly given me a very intimate view of artists and artisans. Now that may become the controversial subject of some future discussions!
But back to the more gentle subject of my childhood artistic influences. My beloved Mother appeared to effortlessly create magnificent floral displays, often simultaneously reading a book or conducting several conversations, while she directed the arrangement of the flowers. She would have been beautifully dressed and bejeweled, hair-do immaculate, she never got messy? Come to think of it she created a huge and gorgeous garden from scratch in the same garb, her only concession being the wearing of a pair of gardening gloves.
We lived in a home surrounded by beautiful things, nothing was off limits, we grew up eating all our meals sitting at a dining table, not in front of the TV. We ate off elegant china, used gorgeous glassware and silver and the handling of lovely things was a matter or course. Actually I have fond memories of my nanny admonishing me for digging in my sandbox using a huge solid silver serving spoon that I had "borrowed" from the kitchen. It worked really well, I have no idea why she thought it was a problem!
From around 3 years of age, hand drawing and painting one's own Christmas cards and gift tags was considered de rigueur, it was simply expected and considered normal. I could read, write, draw and paint pretty well by that time, having been very indulged and encouraged by an entire herd of adoring Grandparents and Great Aunts and Uncles, but I wasn't very good with scissors. Having given myself an interesting hair-cut a tad earlier I think scissors were pretty much permanently absent from my art box.
So, you now have an extra whiff of my thought process. I look forward to discussions on what I think are interesting subjects, things like "are all artists really crazy?", "artist v artisan" and all the bits in between and, of course, lots more along those lines.
If you like what you have read so far, post a comment, I'd love to hear from you:)
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