"When are you going to decide to be an artist and not just someone who occasionally paints?" Is what my wife said to me one evening while annoyed at my attitude toward my vocation at the time. And even though it wasn’t a fun conversation - I understood what she meant, at some point the phrase "decide to become!" jarred me into a place where I could no longer run from myself in that area in my life. I can remember the first time I began to paint as a child sitting in front of the TV on Sunday mornings trying to render the same image Bob Ross was painting on the screen. With burnt umber and greens on a paper pallet as I attempted to create the same pine tree design, he seemed to layout so effortlessly. Even at such a young age, I took an interest in art. I didn’t realize that I had a gift till later years when my doodles in class didn’t seem to compare to everyone else's, and my art teachers recognized my talent. Findi...
With only a bench holding the weight of our curiosity, we glared at a painting that took the center of the room at the museum of art in Cleveland . My art teacher adimately instructed us to focus on the Black and Gray canvas for Just a little bit longer... it was then that something happened to me that changed the way I would look at art for the rest of my Life! It was then that the very simple black and gray colors began to blend before my eyes, I noticed the students around me grew silent, as the dark colors of the piece seemed to surround me. As my countenance fell I felt a weight on my shoulders and the presence of a darkness that went much deeper than the black and grey oil colors on that Canvas. I was a Freshman in art school when I experienced that painting in one of my studio art classes. The Artist Name was Mark Rothco and the painting was - Untitled in His last series Called The Black Series as my art Teacher went on to tell the story behind the piece and how the art...