Category: Art

“Everyone draws – until around puberty, and after that for some reason they either announce that they can’t draw, or they keep drawing. Maybe the only thing that marks an artist is the presence of a double negative: an artist is someone who doesn’t claim they can’t draw.” – Amy Sillman, “On Drawing”

I’m reading Amy Sillman’s essay “On Color” in her book Faux Pas. Despite my issues with seeing color, the essay is drawing me in, largely in the way it opens a door to the tactile world of paint selection, something I was unaware of.

I have a strong desire to lead a more “artistic” life, although I’m not totally sure what that means. Before I started to write this, my initial thought was that it means a life very different from the one I have now. In the next moment, though, I identified my tendency toward all change being radical, and tried instead to push past that first reaction to instead see that art is close at hand.

I’m already a poet. I’m learning to sketch. I have fairly easy access to museums. I could make music. I could create the poetry album I’ve been meaning to work on. In short, I am already living an artistic life, and I have the means at my disposal to deepen that practice if I choose to. The readiness is all, as Hamlet said.

My copy (top) of Amy Sillman’s sketch (bottom) accompanying her essay “On Color.”