Words Spoken Over Us
In the early nineties, after working for an art school, I was given an art class of four students in Atlanta. Margaret Hutchison, one of my first art students ever, was in this class. After the first or second day of art class Margaret said to me,
“I’m not sure I’m getting this, should I continue?”
Earlier that morning the director of the art program had notified me that if I lost any art students I would have to take a cut in pay. Even though it was my first day and I was taking over for a different art teacher, I was about to go from $45 for three hours to $30 and Margaret Hutchison who had never had art before said that sentence.. “I’m not sure I’m getting this, should I continue?”
I’m hoping I said YES to her because I believed she could succeed… Margaret is truly a wonderful person and artist, as demonstrated by her art work
Margert Hutchison Oil
I once had an art teacher in college tell me “to stick with photography you are a better photographer than artist”.
I’m so glad I did not listen to her, but it wasn’t until late 2014, almost 30 years later, that I realized I had believed those words spoken over me, that I was a better photographer than an artist. But one day, while working in Adobe Lightroom, using the photographic tools to convey my message, I realized I was thinking like an artist. I was making decisions using photographic tools used by an artist to convey an artistic message. And it was my message.
At that moment I realized that I AM an Artist first and photographer second.
Sometimes we have words spoken over us that somehow continue to falsely guide our lives, keeping us from stepping into our destiny. I believe art is about equipping the artist with the tools to communicate a message, your unique message.
What comes against our desire to do art?
margaret hutchison pastel
Just for argument sake: When your art work starts to get difficult, or a little confusing, I wonder if you hear those feelings or thoughts from the past?
Voices from the past, that you cannot do this… I wonder if not someone else’s voice over us but maybe our own voice? Voices from the past sometimes defeat us.
Plein Air painting is great example of how frustration and discouragement can come against us. Too often, within the first 30 minutes of being outside painting, I am ready to quit but as I have realized to just keep working through the painting and the difficulties disappear and I start to enjoy the day outside painting.
Is it possible that others do or have had these things said to them?
Margeret Hutchison
I formed logic from the undeveloped brain of a 5-year-old (frontal lobe of logic is not fully developed until the mid-twenties) from things that happened and were said to me. I am so loved by my folks and they were so easy to please.
They loved everything I did. My mom had a Christmas wreath I made in second grade where I glued elbow macaroni and spray painted it gold.
But I said to myself, “ If you like what I just did, wait till you see the next thing that I do” and that 5 -year-old started this “measuring up-perfectionism” without anyone knowing what was going on in that undeveloped brain.
About six years ago before I started to oil paint again (see my story in my Blog “How To Enjoy The Day Painting”) Margeret returned to the art school and I had shared with her that I realized what John S. Sargent may have done in his oil paintings and I could explain it through the artist story. After explaining this I asked Margaret to draw this image from Haiti for our Haiti fund raiser through y wife’s 501c3 called Art With a Mission Atlanta (AWAM ATLANTA) because I always loved this image and I would help her and explain the steps. Margeret is the only one I trusted to draw this image, yet it is interesting that I gave my best image to someone else to do. Was I was too afraid to do it myself?
In my mind I was not good enough?
Margeret Hutchison Graphite
So I asked a student to do it for me, for the children in Haiti.
Margaret is an amazing woman, a wonderful artist, and one of the most talented artists I have ever had the privilege to teach. What if someone did not stand in for Margaret and believe in her?
What is the sentence that you might say or hear? Where did a belief start? Isn’t it time to step out of that shadow and step into your desires through art?
…Or speak life into someone else who cannot speak it into his own life?
Margeret Hutchison Graphite
I wish I had more of Margeret’s beautiful art work to show the world, she was in the art class before I realized as an art school the need to advertise, our art program has always had between 150 and 200 students and it has been by word of mouth.
Is it time for you to step into your desirer and maybe to speak into someone else’s desire?
thank you, Chris diDomizio
p.s. interesting that I asked her to draw it and that I had held in reservation the opportunity to paint this image.