Today I repurposed an old blog of mine; I am now narrowing the focus to my journey as an artist and I decided to take a moment to reflect on my personal art history.
I had the opportunity to spend frequent quality time as a child with my box of crayons, pulling them out one at a time, marveling at the names, engrossed in the exotic colors (it was a good school year when Mom and Dad got me the 120 set), lining them up in new formations, carefully sharpening the points for those I used frequently (did Crimson ever stay sharp enough? No). My box of crayons was always something I viewed with reverence but treated as the familiar. The realization that the green and gold box offered me the ability to create new worlds was revolutionary to my infant’s mind. No matter how many times I used them or carelessly carried them in my backpack, I would open the flip top box and an angel’s choir would go off in my head with the “ahhh” of dream fulfillment. But when I got a bit older and went to school I was encouraged to color within the lines. I complied on the surface but I had my own semi-subversive technique that I invented. I would color within the lines but I would also color on the outline of the picture. I would trace the image lines carefully so I didn’t go outside the picture boundary but with in an incredibly bold stroke…sometimes I created a dashed line to replace the solid, sometimes I made the entire look and feel of the picture change with an unexpected color choice. I was a quasi-rebel and that realization makes me laugh because I still am.
In this incredibly mundane initial post of my repurposed blog I wish to encourage anyone reading this to think about when you were a child and what your crayons or your kazoo or your blocks meant to your creative spirit–how is that child faring in your current life? The answer to that question may be a barometer to how fulfilled you feel as an individual (not within a role that you play but you, as a person independent of your life status). Today I mulled over my own transformation. For a long time I set about to create a world of financial stability and lived a life that was comfortably within the lines. I may have still colored on the boundary lines boldly but only on the other side of the paper where no one else could see; now I am turning the page and sharpening my crayons in anticipation and wonderment.
