why i love visual art: the cow-dog-coon-cat

While babysitting one day last week I took requests for sidewalk drawings.

Kids are pretty simple.  They mostly draw shapes and things made from basic shapes:  lines = roads, train tracks, rivers, etc.

From me, they requested a dog, then a cow.  Here is the result:

and here is the commentary:

Kiddo:  Wow, Miss Jessica, that’s a really good dog!  Good job.

Me:  Thanks!  I’m glad you like it.

Kiddo:  I thought you were going to draw a cow too.

Me:  I did, it’s the other animal there on the left.

Kiddo:  Uhhh… no.  I don’t think so.  I see the animal but it’s not a cow.  Actually, I don’t know what it is, actually.  But it’s not a cow.

Bam!

It’s hard to be a misunderstood artist.  Unless you already understand that your art stinks.  As I’ve known mine has for a long time.  The relics are strewn about my parent’s house:  a sawdust/glue penguin sculpture, clay high-top sneaker, a watercolor shipwreck scene… all gone terribly awry.  But able to bring laughter to anyone who I let look at them.

So, this is why I LOVE visual art.  I’ve seen a lot of beautiful images, figurative and literal,  in my life and they are forever trapped in my brain.  This is why I love when people can transfer them to a visual medium I connect with.  It fills the gap.

Here are some of my favorite local Charlotte artists:

Duy Huynh

Osiris Rain

Check them out.  Don’t let that chalk cow-dog-coon-cat be the last image in your mind after reading this!