Thursday Thoughts...

"Art was the last thing I considered; I couldn’t paint or draw so I couldn’t hope to be anything as glamorous and interesting as an artist." 

Rosalie Gascoigne

It's been a while since I pondered Rosalie Gascoigne's words, but they always make me nod my head in agreement. This soooo reflects my own sense of self and my thoughts about art and why I could clearly never ever consider myself one.

I have only one art-related memory from school. A friend's mother was an artist and she came in to give classes. There was something about weather and skies; and I tried to paint a storm. It was a dark, black and deep green mess. My recollection is that I felt that it kind of looked like what I was trying to express, but it clearly did not meet anybody else's expectations of what weather or the sky should like.

I recall feeling if I could have another go at this I might be able to control the paint a bit better, and be a bit more delicate or controlled, but I was never selected to go back to those classes and so I figured I really wasn't any good at art.

And yet here I am, being an artist in a completely different way.

I also like the reference to the glamorous and interesting artist.  I oftentimes forget that artists and their studios can seem a little bit magical and special and that lots of people don't often get the chance to spend time in them. I guess we can appear a little bit different, altho we all know we're not glamorous!

This is close to how I remember it from circa 1976... my palette has definitely changed!