I’ve taught a couple of classes of the kind that fall under the category of “drawing for idiots and the genetically uncoordinated.†They were for those who had convinced themselves, “I can’t draw myself out of a wet paper bag to save my life,†or who misguidedly lamented, “I can’t draw a straight line.†Anyone can draw a straight line, the question is, why would you want to? And the fact is that just about anyone can draw, and they can do it better with a little training.
Natalie Angier offers an evolutionary rationale for that fact in her article, “The Dance of Evolution, or How Art Got Its Start.†She cites art scholar Ellen Dissanayake who claims that:
… art did not arise to spotlight the few, but rather to summon the many….
That’s a notion that provides a welcoming perspective, to say the least. Dissanayake explains the roots of the creative process of creating art in the mother-child formative relationship. Although dance as an art form figures prominently as the example in the piece (a challenge for me, given that I don’t “get†dancing. To one insistent white-haired guest at my son’s wedding who repeatedly urged that I should dance with my wife, I asked, “Do you dance?†To which she replied, “Oh, yes! I do!†To which I said, “Then why don’t you dance with my wife?â€) the message is clear: grab a pencil, break out the watercolors, borrow a glop of your kid’s play-doh, dust off the old high school band instrument, sign up for an art class, or put on some music and dance around the room like an fool. Art is in your genes.
The image “The Blind Man Receives His Sight” is copyright (c) 2007, Israel Galindo. All rights reserved.
