Thursday, February 06, 2014

Teaching and art

Art is Long and Time is Fleeting, --Longfellow This is certainly true. In our society, where we strive to be "the best", "be the biggest", "be all you can be", where does practice fit in? I just don't see it. Everyone is trying, striving to be all these things, but it takes time to get there. What happens in the meantime? I don't know if anyone ever talks about that. That is the 'struggle' and 'failure' time. The time where you wish you had not started. The time where you need to have a good talk with yourself, and talk yourself into moving forward and not giving up. Right around the corner there will be sunshine and unicorns. But you have to walk through that valley of death before you get there. The road is long, of which there might be no return. Art is not something you can do casually, or can you? Then, they call you a 'dilettante'. The dictionary describes this condition as: dil·et·tante ˌdiliˈtänt,-ˈtäntē/ noun 1. a person who cultivates an area of interest, such as the arts, without real commitment or knowledge. Well, that's not me, that's for sure. Even if the art I produce is bad, or good, or fabulous, there is a rich commitment. Do you have that commitment? It's something that grabs you and doesn't let go. Ever. Once, someone asked me in a bookstore as I was buying a book on Henri de Toulouse Lautrec,one of my favorite painters,"So, you do art?" I replied, "No, I don't do art, it does me".

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