July 8, 2007

Art.

I’ve never been good at art. My cousin’s daughter can look at a photograph and draw an incredible portrait that would take your breath away, but me, I can’t even paint by numbers. In Sociology class last semester I was asked to draw a person and I drew a stick figure. My fellow students made fun of me, though they refrained from yelling “neener, neener, neener” and pointing. I think the mustache scared them.

For my father’s 60th birthday party (which went very well, despite Mother Nature being quite feisty with the weather at times this afternoon), I made a photo collage of various pictures from over the years. I tried to select photos that would mean something to him and stick to the family theme, incorporating many elements of his life experience. Now this is something that I enjoyed doing very much. I can handle grabbing photos, scanning them, printing them out and arranging them in an interesting manner.

Rosie O’Donnell often takes photos and does artful things with them and then makes a video to share with the world. I’m thinking of taking a stab at doing the same. Even though I mix up the concepts behind decoupage, papier mache and fondu, I should think that with today’s technology I should be able to make up something that’s interesting and expressive.

And isn’t that what art is all about?