“The Walking Man I” — Alberto Giacometti
Artistically I am still a child with a whole life ahead of me to discover and create. I want something, but I won’t know what it is until I succeed in doing it.
–Alberto Giacometti
The short statement above from the late artist Alberto Giacometti perfectly captures a feeling that has been with me for a long time now.
Now well into middle age, I have been a professional painter now for over twenty five years and have did okay with my career in art. I do what I want basically, earn a decent living, get some recognition here and there and have established my own little niche with my work.
It’s a decent place to be at this point in my career and a lot of young artists would love to be in my position.
But most days, even when I feel the tiredness from the wear and tear of the years weighing on me physically, I still feel new to this whole art thing, like I have just scratched the surface with my work. As Giacometti points out, I feel like there is a whole life, an endless horizon, ahead of me that is filled with all sorts of new possibilities.
New forms, new expressions, new inspirations, new voices and more– all yet unseen and unknown. Just something.
And again like Giacometti, I feel a huge gnawing desire to find that something but don’t have a clue as to what it might yet be.
That was the same feeling that I had when I was first experimenting with painting years ago. I had a hazy vision in the recesses of my mind that I wanted to pull out but didn’t truly know what it was or what it might look like until it had emerged. When it did finally come out, I instantly recognized it for what it was and what it could mean for me. I ran with the inspiration from it for many years.
But at some point during these years, I began to sense that another vision of the same sort resides somewhere down there in my mind, one that had yet to be found. One that I won’t know until it comes out.
So, though I am a sometimes tired middle-aged guy, I know that I am still a child artistically, one who still sees the whole wide world and all its potential before him.
I work and wait in anticipation that this child’s voice will someday be heard.
Redtree Times 