The January 2012 Tutorial Discussion

[Gare]

However, Mike?

You've expressed something on this forum, and that in and of itself is worth its weight in gold.

In his later years, Albert Einstein put away the metaphysics and focused on the human condition. One of his revelations had to do with (drum roll, please): self-expression. He said in one of his writings that he felt strongly that the need for self-expression is not only a driving force in Mankind, but it often outweighs the needs for shelter and food.

It's that strong.

But self-expression has more avenues than I can count. First, let me tell you, Mike, that you shouldn't disqualify yourself as an artist, because you sort of have to define what an artist is before your practice denial!

My late father used to bash himself over the head trying to be "creative". He saw carpentry as his gold standard, and he wasn't talented at it, but damn if he didn't spend all weekend in his wood shop making semi-successful pieces of furniture for the family...who used to put it in the same closet where they kept the necktie gifts, the socks, and the Christmas fruitcake.

My dad was creative, however. He just didn't intellectually/emotionally embrace the reality that his mode of self-expression wasn't in woodworking—he was a positively awesome manager at G.E.'s television plant.

The point is that unfortunately, whenever a brilliant piece of software such as Xara is created, that has user controls that allow a non-skilled person to create pleasant designs—all of a sudden "drawing" becomes the gold standard of self-expression and of creativity. And this is very shortsighted.

What we all have in common on this forum is that we are interested in artwork: making it, viewing, occasionally criticizing it.

But isn't classical dancing just as legitimate avenue of self-expression? How about music? Drama? Hey, we have a LOT of drama on TalkGraphics!

If you have the perseverance, I can help teach you some of the skills for doing outstanding artwork. But if you fail, you shouldn't be unhappy, because drawing isn't the whole ball of wax, you know? An "Artist" merely means "someone who practices Art.", and as I've suggested, you can be artistic without ever picking up a brush or a sculptor's chisel. You can do desktop publishing layout in Xara, you can create animations, there's a lot of things you can do outside of drawing a photorealistic car.

If you live in a free country, you always have options for self-expression.

Be happy for that. In fact, do a little dance.

Who knows? You might discover that you're a gifted dancer.

My Best,

Gary