Artistic Talent

What kind of talent do you envy?

Personally, as I've written before, I envy the artistic ability to paint or draw. I wish I was able to take an image or an idea and splatter it on a crisp canvas, coming out with a product that is understandable, clear, inspiring, and beautiful. I wish I could capture some images and ideas on a sketchpad or canvas--I think images are extremely powerful, sometimes even more than words.

In a debate, which side would you choose: the power of words of the power of the image has a stronger effect?

When it comes to expressing the self or artistically creating, I always try to satisfy it through writing. Through writing, I can at least minutely describe what it is I'd want to paint, but I use the lined paper or Word Document, instead, to instill my conveyed idea.

I always tried to draw, but it was never really that great. I took a drawing class at Cortland and did fairly well for a morning class, but that was the extent to my pursuit. Sculpting always seemed fascinating to me--the ability to take one glob of something and pick away at it until it formed a meaningful shape. Way to manipulate your surroundings.

Art is fascinating in any form. For whatever reason, the moment I woke up this morning, I asked myself the blog question that I'll end the post with. Sometimes, when I first wake up, my mind is bombarded by a million thoughts, mostly meaningless chatter that races at hundreds of miles per hour throughout my brain, restlessly not allowing me to fall back to sleep. Hence, here I am at 9:00 AM on a Tuesday morning blogging about the thoughts that first dragged me out of a sleep-in morning.

If you could be an artist, would you want to sculpt, draw simple line sketches, paint landscapes, portraits, or abstract ideas like Picasso? Would you want to be a photographer or create giant pieces of artwork that are twenty feet tall that are displayed on college campuses and parks (Cortland has a few, but we still have not figured out what they are or what they mean)?

This was my troubling question. I tossed in bed wondering which I would choose, and when it got down to it, I couldn't just choose one. I would really want to be a photographer with a keen eye to a stillshot, but I would really want the ability to draw something exactly as I saw it, mixed it with a little abstract idea that blended into the landscape I was painting or drawing. I can't narrow it down any more than that. At least I can pursue my photography aspiration.

Anyway, I pose three strong, and difficult, questions throughout the blog. What are your answers to any of the questions? They're not easy, but they're fun to ponder.