Quite early my career was shaped by the frequent conversations which began with “It’s amazing what you do. However, I could never do that [draw]…” Conversations which delved deeper often resulted in the query, “whatever made you believe you could [be an artist?]” One might say that it is those conversations that shaped the first twenty years of my creative journey. Before I found my voice [creatively,] I first cultivated a skill for drawing well. As I sharpened my abilities in forming finer drawings, I also cultivated skills in color mixing, and medium application for painting. In tandem, I wrote about these experiences and researched. The result of the drawing, painting, writing and research culminated in the journey – me finding my voice; all whilst teaching others how to hold a pencil, build line into shape and then shade shape into form.
In reference to the question, “whatever made you think you could [be an artist]?” Quite simply, no one ever told me that I couldn’t.
I suppose perhaps in retrospection, my response to one professing that they “can’t draw,” was to simply show them, that in fact, the notion of can’t lay entirely in belief rather than capability. As the age old saying goes “where there is a will, there is a way.”
The great painter of the Immortal Eight, Robert Henri once advised a student, “all the past can help you.”
When I am often asked, “where [I] studied,” I direct my listener/ reader to the history books and to the masters upon the museum walls. That is where my beginning lives. It was only in gaining a better understanding of what has been done and how it was achieved that I could then conduct my own self-examination into the origin of who I am and for what art, I possessed the deepest conviction to make.
Ultimately, my journey began with these essentials: a pencil, an eraser, paper and a belief that if I was willing to learn, I could achieve anything.
In the words spoken by Michelangelo at age eighty-seven, “Ancora Imparo”
As we draw nearer to the dawning of a new year, I extend this invitation to aspiring creatives to join me in my studio for Weekly Fine Art Classes.
We already are creative beings. Continue your creative journey today.
My studio is positioned along the railroad in the rural Alabama town of Smiths Station Alabama at The Sarah West Gallery of Fine Art, A Center for Cultural Arts.
Since 2008, The Sarah West Gallery of Fine Art has served the Chattahoochee Valley River Region as a destination providing fine arts education for aspiring creatives of all skill levels and ages (Children | Youth | Adults.) To Learn More About, upcoming classes, culturally enriching events such as studio talks and exhibitions, fine art acquisitions or to meet with the artist we invite you to contact:
The Sarah West Gallery of Fine Art, A Center for Cultural Arts
2750 Panther Parkway, Smiths Station, AL 36877
tele: 334-480-2008
email sarahwestgallery@att.net
follow @sarahwestartist @thesarahwestgalleryoffineart