by Jody Coughlin
You are never too old to learn. It’s really true. What is missing from the phrase is the part about it being easier said (to learn when you get older) than done. When we are young, our minds are as new as a garden waiting to be planted. There is nothing there to occupy our thoughts other than the basics and then our interpretation of those basics. That is not too say children are simple minded. Rather, they are like a chest full of golden coins not yet spent.
As we age, we take in more information, we process it and store it and compartmentalize it and also, it is necessary to take into account the substance intake that will invariably (for good or bad) alter our brain chemistry and mix things up within the conscious and unconscious mind. Whether it is an aspirin or the fattest joint you have ever seen in your life, what goes in will definitely effect what comes out. To a degree. I think.
There is nothing more daunting than trying something new. I know this to be true from experience and also from observing this in others. The first day at a new job is a prime example of the case in point. You arrive at the office, you find your new desk, you strike up your computer. By this time (about five minutes into Monday morning) your nerves are shot. You just keep moving ahead anyway.
If you are lucky, somebody next to you will help you out a little. If you are unlucky, your boss will bark a question at you in front of an entire room of onlookers that you may or may not be able to answer. But, you pick your way through the day. You just do it because you need to. You want that pay check at the end of the week so, for the most part, you just do it.
It is not so with art of whatever kind. There is, especially at first, no incentive, no immediate payoff, save one. That one is to simply make yourself happy. That is the only immediate payoff to sitting down at your kitchen table to try out your new set of water colors or the little box of sketch pencils you bought yourself at the dollar store.
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Drawing your first-ever rendition of the half-eaten piece of toast that is sitting on a plate on your kitchen table, for anybody who has never drawn anything seriously in their life, will be a daunting task. Sure, it sounds simple. But, try it. It’s not simple at all. Therein lies the eye of the needle, educationally speaking.
That little nuance of difference in your mind between something sounding easy to the ear but translating down to be very complicated to the mind is where most artists seem to fall on the path toward their personal artistic triumphs. It’s a left brain, right brain kind of thing. I think.
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I have encountered people who say they cannot draw after one ridiculous, wet-rag attempt at a really stupid looking happy face (for example), rife with expression that reflects the beleaguered attempt from their maker. It’s sad. It’s pathetic. I have to hold my hands behind my back to stop from slapping the person who made such a sorry little face. I don’t mean to be mean (at least I don‘t think I do) but who ever said drawing or painting was easy? That you could do anything of real significance the first time out?
Is playing the piano easy? For some, it probably is. But for most of us, it seems complicated. It has to be broken down into bits of information. It has to be taken one small step at a time. It is the same when you draw. Here. Let me show you.
Take the above drawings of a piece of toast (the remains of my son’s breakfast). They are not the best drawings of a piece of toast in the entire world. Indeed, they are my first (ever) drawings of a piece of toast. I, just now, drew toast for the first time. What did I notice? I noticed that a drawing of toast requires a lot of necessary detail in order to make it look real. I am not so sure I captured all that detail in these drawings but now, I know, the next time I want to draw realistic looking toast, or impressionistic looking toast, I need to add a few details like crumbs around the edges and lots of differently sized holes throughout the bread. Those details are what toast is about. That is what I observed. I learned that toast is full of crumbs and numerous holes and it is actually a very complicated little thing. In summation: Observe. Recreate. Observe. Recreate. Observe. Create. Create. Observe. See. Recreate. Create…Catch the groove. Get going.
You can do it, too. Really. You can. I think.
