Column: Be an Artist

Last year, I attended a quilt show. As I wandered from one beautiful quilt to another, I was amazed at the skill and creativity each contained. It made me appreciate the dedication, care and love that had been poured into each stitch. The flood of color and pattern overwhelmed me with awe. Each displayed a true artist who took what we think of as an ordinary, everyday object and made it cherished and special.

If you create, you are an artist. We think of an artist as someone who paints, sculpts, makes music or writes. Perhaps you might call a surgeon, mechanic or chef an artist because of their unusual skills and creativity. Sculptor Ruth Asawa says, “An artist is not special. An artist is an ordinary person who can take things and make them special.”

Creating takes courage and self-confidence but can also move you to humility. There are times when I struggle to create what I imagine in my mind. Using all my skills and experience does not guarantee success. I have been told I should make 100 paintings before I have one I am truly proud of. While exploring many media is something I enjoy, I like to think I have mastered some along the way, but one eludes me: sculpture. Making a 3D object to me is the ultimate achievement.

I was at a museum that had a display of European art. As I went from room to room, I turned a corner and was struck, transfixed. There before me sat an exact replica of Michelangelo’s “Pieta.” This is one of my all-time favorite sculptures. I stood still as I gazed on each part of the marble from which it had been carved. I could not fathom that he made it at the young age of 23. It held such beauty of the human figure in great detail and feelings of inner suffering restrained by dignity. It took him a year and a half, and I have since learned Michelangelo, as skilled and talented as he was, still had many “failures” with his stone carvings. It is the only one he ever signed. He truly had the patience and perseverance needed to create sculpture.

Although I feel marble is a difficult medium, with any medium, you can experience problem-solving and learn patience and perseverance. Along the way, you may make friends with freedom of play and allow for uncertainty. As Van Gogh said, “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” We never know what we are capable of until we try.

Can you be an artist? Sister M. Martha Jean, SSND, said, “When the hand, the heart and the mind work together, Art is born.”

Brenda S. Seyer has found tranquility in creating art from a young age. An art teacher and member of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, she enjoys working in charcoal figures, plein air oils, realistic watercolors and experimental batiks.