“Talent is what a man possesses. Genius is what possesses a man”
-Isaac Stern.
I came across that quote while listening to a documentary on Einstein. I actually listened to 3 docs during the making of this collage which took me around 50 hours. I wanted to feel the depth of who he was and bring that through the art. I’m entranced by high achievers. Perhaps that’s what drives me to keep creating—I don’t know what will happen and that’s what produces an angst in me, like that spur in the horse’s side. I just have to run with this—like the “I didn’t choose art, art chose me” kinda deal.
By the age of 33, I surpassed the 10,000 hour masters mark. That averages out to an hour every day since the age of three years old when I first started drawing. Ask my parents, my friends, my former roomies. They saw me creating my art ALL THE TIME. Even though I got voted the “Most Likely to be a famous artist” in my 8th grade yearbook, I didn’t take it seriously—actually I was kind of embarrassed because I never thought I would be taken seriously as a traditional-minded girl in a modern world that demanded on center stage the parts of myself that I shut down for so long. I guess I had to catch up to my purpose and what I was capable of.
I’m 99.99% self taught, save for a couple random drawing and watercolor classes I took as a teenager. I actually never liked classroom art groups, always been a Lone Ranger. It’s always been “me against the music,'“ challenging myself to new heights. For several years now people ask what my hobbies are outside of work (art) and, as most entrepreneurs can attest, I say my hobby is also my work. Both words are synonymous to me. As an artist, it’s just hard to clock in and clock out of this life when it enriches you more than the average occupation. However, I don’t even talk about art when I get together with my friends because that’s my chance to escape from it for a bit because I’m so emerged in it all the time. In fact, I could talk to a stranger for an hour and they would never know I’m an artist.
My prolificness and versatility comes simply from growing up in a very dynamic childhood filled with experiences while still yearning for more meaning and excitement in life due to my whimsical imagination. Veering from this medium to that, from this subject matter to that subject matter—I can’t put me in a box and neither should others. As an auto diadact, my tunnel vision to hone in on my art skills all these years with little outside influence and rearing is the only “box” in which I’ve put myself.
Granted, it’s been a long journey and I’ve had to remain strong under so much solitude, I mean, nobody else in my family or relatives is even a fine artist! The only one I know of is my maternal great grandmother who has a handful of watercolors she did—she didn’t have the luxury to fully pursue her talents growing up during the Great Depression, raising a family and then passing away in her 50s. So I’d like to think I’m picking up where she left off, making her proud up there. So, while I’m definitely possessed, it will be up to critics to give me credence as part of the G club. And if God continues to bless me through this next decade, I know it’s not if but when I’ll find that written in a publication or even in someone’s blog. I want #whitneylanderson to possess the artworld.
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