Did you discover art, or did art discover you?

[GWayne]

How did you first learn about art?

[ironman]

Hi, I always made art, as far back into my childhood as I can remember, I had an intense interest in drawing and painting and a voracious appetite for reading about anything to do with art.
Of course, I was totally discouraged from having a career in the arts and was pushed towards an engineering degree. Well, I never got that degree, but today, I'm a full time, professional artist (whatever that means!).
Have a nice day,
Jeff

[bobcoon]

As it happened, I grew up as an only child, far enough from town to have few playmates. My Father a carpenter, had wood, paint, tools. These became my playmates and my world, that is, my imaginary world. I imagined scenarios and made objects that fit into "my world". Interestingly enough, now at 63 I still imagine my world and its objects. Some call them sculptures, while to others I am still that strange kid out in the yard.

[GWayne]

From the age of 5, I was always interested in being creative. I seriously pursued my art at the age of 8 when I began to take private art lessons. My family was supportive of my passion until they realized that I wanted my "hobby" to be my career.

GWayne

http://www.georgewayne.com

[G. Murdoch]

Greetings,

Art discovered me in my nid twenties in the form of my dear friend David Greely. If you had asked me at age 21 to describe myself using 20, 50, or 100 words, artist & creative wouldn't even had been on the list. Now at age 37 these two words would be at the top of the list.

Graham

[ilona]

I am right there in the yard with Bobcoon. I am still making crazy little sculptures, only now they are made from bigger and more sophisticated junk. And now, I am allowed to use the epoxy and the kiln, which is a huge step up from Elmer's glue.

[Merlion]

I'm afraid my English is not enough to understand the difference between me discovering art, or art discovering me.

Anyway, about using my hands to create things, I remember taking an interest in carpentry and other DIY skills from very young, completely self taught. When I left home for England at 21, the sights of the figure sculptures there made a strong impression on me. The strongest impact was when I travelled to Italy and saw the public sculptures in Florence and Rome. The single piece that stunned me was Michaelangelo's Pieta in the Vatican.

But it never crossed my mind to do sculpting. The interest remains at the level of visiting art museums until I retired from my career teaching engineering at universities.

After retirement, I happened to see a sculptor doing clay modeling in China. When I tried to discuss with him, I picked up the sculpting tool to help me illustrate. There an electric current seems to flow through my fingers, and my heart. It is a sudden enlightenment. After this, I really took off in this newly discovered dormant passion, and I have not looked back since.

[justme]

My friend says ask yourself what you were doing at age five. That's where your passion is. I had just gotten hold of some clay. Even before that, my days were spent drawing, pasting, coloring and painting.
J

[GWayne]

I'm afraid my English is not enough to understand the difference between me discovering art, or art discovering me.

Person A (an individual who has discovered art) has creative desires and acts upon them.

Person B (art that has discovered an individual) is a non-artist who is exposed to art of some type by chance, and as a result feels a desire to create artwork.


GWayne

http://www.georgewayne.com

[sculptor]

George:
Why is it that you ask?

Personally, I've always taken a creative approach to whatever tickled my fancy--------analyse what it is that i want to sense, and find a way to make it happen----from gardening to poetry to design to building to art--------
somewhere along the way, i fell in love with the classics, including art-malvina hoffman and loredo taft come to mind, I grew up near chicago which had lots of good public sculpture in the museums and parks

then in my studies, i wanted to take the legacy from the old and classical (include aethenadoris polydoris and aegisander) and find my own voice to better suit my desired outcome

I never really planned to become an artist, it just kind of happened when i was dabbling and found that i had a talent worth developing.

Back to your "How did you first learn about art?"
I really do not remember, it seems that art was always available, and I took pleasure in it. (I used to hang out at the local library and listen to the stories at the oldfolks home, and as soon as I could drive, I ditched school to hang out in museums)

again, why do you ask?
rod
sculptor

[MountainSong]

When I was a little tyke somebody told me the stuff I did in quiet playtime was art. I believed them.

By Junior High somebody told me I was an artist – that stood to reason since I was making art in quiet playtime.

By High School somebody mentioned that art sold for money. So I started selling it for money.

Two years out of High School I learned about Art Shows and that artists showed their artwork at them and could win awards. So I got juried into art shows, won ribbons and awards and traveled all over the USA doing shows and selling the artwork.

At those first shows I heard about art galleries and that professional artists got in galleries. So I got in galleries in various states, did shows and sold the work.

Then somebody told me that successful artists must have degrees in art. I decided that was poppycock and kept creating and selling art.

The other day I heard artists can get grants………
.
.

[ilona]

That is something I would like to learn more about. (grants)

[GWayne]

Rod,

Hi. I have had many conversations with my wife and best friend (who is an artist/musician regarding this topic, and I was curious as to how other creative individuals on this forum began their artistic journey.

The "art bug" bit me at an early age. I really didn't know what I was doing at the time, but the only thing that I did know, is that I had to be creating "art" of some kind in order to satisfy my creative desires.


GWayne

http://www.georgewayne.com

[Navigator7]

Originally Posted by ilona

That is something I would like to learn more about. (grants)

ROTFLMAO!

(Got a notice to lengthen my message by at least 10 characters. I have exceeded that request.)

[AKoch]

I was a plasterer when I was offered a job at the NJ statehouse, as an ornamental plasterer. I went to night school to learn this from the sculpture teacher, John Charry, who had worked in an ornamental shop. On night a portrait modell came in by mistake, and the instructor told me to give it a try. From then on (1948) it was downhill (or uphill?) all the way. What I ask myself is: did sculpture discover me, or did I discover sculpture?

[Tired Iron]

This thread was started a year ago and left to go the way of old posts. Quite a few new people have joined since then , myself included. I really enjoyed reading what the contributors above had to say. Especially Merlion feeling like electricity or something went though his whole body when he picked up the modeling tool.
My Grandfather and Uncles were all sign painters. That was a skill with talent that has been all but replaced by computer graphics. Anyway I think you are born with some talent in your bones and I think that like Merlion I was just lucky that circustances brought meto the greatest pleasure (this side of a woman) that I've ever found!
I found myself signed up for a hairstyling academy after a year of working for Tropicana cleaning the orange juicers. Any way out of there was appreciated and college just wasn't an option at that point. After 23 years of creating hairstyles I jumped ship for the good old benifits that a state job offered. Three years with no creative outlet and 40 stitches from stab wounds left me without a job (corrections Officer) and without a profession (cosmetology) Can't do either now. By chance I had taken two years of welding back in the mid seventies and by chance I picked up a torch and welder over the years . By inspiriation from who knows where I put some pieces together the way I thought they should be and I've had fun and have been selling stuff ever since! Now I can't wait to get back out and find more pieces of iron that want a new life.

Let us hear what some new people or those that missed this thread the first time tell what got you started.

[evaldart]

My mother studied art in college, she didn't finish. I arrived. And art was already there. She , to this day, posesses an unique creative sensibility that always extends quietness, patience, generosity, subtlety and caring. I grew up in this.
My father was a professional athlete, never had too many creative thoughts. Made a living with his body until it became wrecked. He gave himself to his career and for that gained a respect which has him still, to this day, working in his field at a place of great prominence and achievement. I grew up in this.
While I pursued art and literature in college on athletic scholarship (NCAA division I), two passions consuming all my thoughts, it occurred to me that - while the athletics had no use for the art, the art may have use for the athletics. Thus sculpture. The utilization of my physical abilities made many things easier during interactions with material. And I was no stranger to the intensity of bodily thresholds. I have defined my individual approach to artmaking by allowing the two people I was to finally become just one. And it has always been my method to do so with confidence and authority. Again, art was always there.