My first foray. Into what? I guess one could call it, “computer assisted art.”
If my young self knew what I was going to be up to in my old age, he probably would have traveled to France, made a full day of bar-hopping in Paris, and then jumped into the Seine in drunken despair.
Why? Because back then, centuries ago, even using an air brush was considered selling out, at least by him. But, as the title says, we do what we must. We work around age limitations and we try new things. And it’s not as if I didn’t do the creative stuff, make the choices, pick the colors, and essentially paint-draw with the mouse. It’s not as if the computer did anything more than help me save time, money, and cleanup. Well, with one exception. I was able to click “fill” and get the black background of the painting all set up. Beyond that, it was my own work in progress, etc.
Not too shabby, if I do say so myself, and I just did. Especially for a first serious try. Was it as much “fun” as painting the old-school way? No. Not at all. I once spent many a long, sleepless night, lost in a kind of lowercase ecstasy, filling a real-world canvas with real-world oils, feeling a part of something much larger than meself, and connecting with the greats of the past. At least in me own ‘ead. Without trying to. Merging with the worlds they created, the sounds and smells in the air, the wild range of thoughts they must have had, and the kinetic motions their bodies made, rhyming with it all. In short, I was one with the mesmeric, cosmic ocean of All that Was and All that Is, or just high on the paint fumes.
We do what we must. Past, present, and the future that never comes.