Chairs Are Dumb

Have you ever tried to sketch a stack of chairs? Well, have you? I didn't think so.
Let me tell you that, from personal experience, it's a lot harder than it sounds. First of all, there are legs everywhere...in every direction, legs, legs, legs- like a Can-Can dancer had babies with a centipede.

If you somehow get the legs properly drawn, good luck with all the chairs' backs and seats. I close my eyes and remember the 'simple' scene I had set up in the living room today: three chairs haphazardly stacked and one black chair on its side. I remember the scene and let out a shudder thinking about the green chair's back and how I unsuccessfully represented that back with paint today. And then I think about all the other unsuccessful attempts I made at painting the other three chairs' various parts.

After the challenges of the legs, backs, and seats, there's an element that I don't think has a name- it's what I call 'I'm out of my league' factor. It's that feeling when a painter, sculptor, or any other artist faces something so completely above their skill level that they let out a sigh and commit this moment to 'learning experience' and have no hopes of mastering whatever it is that they're facing. It's like handing a beginning piano student Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and saying "Knock yourself out, son." or giving a novice sculptor a chisel and some marble and saying "Recreate Michaelangelo's David".

You are painfully aware of what your skill level is and you know that it does not match the skill required for the project you're trying to comlete. This doesn't give you any reason to quit or refuse to work on the project, it just means that the product will never be seen (heard, witnessed, etc) by the public. Instead, your product will serve as a reminder of how much you still have to learn.

Today, while trying to work on my stack of chairs, the 'I'm out of my league' feeling hung over my easel like a thick fog. This project today reminded me how much I have to learn this year and that I have my work cut out for me. I worked and, as I tried one sketch after another, I pacified my fragile artistic self by saying "This is lame now, but you'll get better at it. No one ever has to see this."

And no one will. Nope, no picture for you. Just be happy knowing that my silly-putty artistic skills were stretched today and it'll pay off later. As for today, we'll just call it a learning day.

I'm sick of legs, backs, and seats. As a sign of my frustration, I am going to silently boycott chairs for the rest of the day and sit on the floor during dinner. Maybe then those chairs will be reminded of who calls the shots around here.