The Magic In My Fingers!

I find it bizarre when I label myself with tags of negativity and later ascertain I underestimated me. For example, growing up, my little sister could paint the Mona Lisa if she set her mind to and yet her self-importance to make time to sketch kept her from being a famed Picasso today. She had the talent, I had the time.

Watching her draw, sketch, paint and color made me wonder if she had an imagination that took her to a place of unearthing and serenity. I wondered if I could find a fantasy land or learn to appreciate the world better just because I could draw. But I gave up just trying to outline.

  

Years passed without me ever making an attempt to discover art. When I was in Milwaukee, WI in 2008 I took a tour of the Milwaukee Art museum in Downtown and spent 4 hours on a cold snowy Sunday afternoon exploring Art.

The Art Museum itself is an architectural marvel. The 341,000-square-foot Museum includes the War Memorial Center (1957) designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, the Kahler Building (1975) by David Kahler, and the Quadracci Pavilion (2001) created by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. The Reiman Bridge, also designed by Calatrava, connects to the pavilion and provides pedestrian access to and from downtown Milwaukee.  If you ever are in Chicago, I recommend visiting this place in East Milwaukee.

    

 

To my astonishment I found art was classified into so many forms that artists could appreciate anything someone attempted to draw. I was excited to see the French Renaissance collection; there was American art, German Expressionism, photographs, sculpture and decorative arts. Looking at the intricacies in the paintings I felt motivated to attempt taking up art as a hobby and discovering the magic in my fingers all over again.

And then one day in April this year, I attempted what I call beginner’s art: “pencil sketching” and guess what, the experience was satisfactory. You can see below some of my initial sketching. I don’t have the equipment handy will make do with what paper and pencil I have lying around the house. None the less, I can say I enjoyed sketching the following. 

Art can be challenging, but I guess we all have some magic in our fingers to draw out our minds. Take some time and discover the magic. I am sure you may not be good, but you will love the attention you give to detail and the learning experience of it all. Happy Sketching!!!