Art Lessons, Part 1

In the preface, Haynes talks about a piece by Georgia O'Keefe called Sky Above CLouds IV, so I decided to look it up. Haynes talks about how fascinated she was and that O'Keefe did an amazing job portraying the clouds. With the knowledge of O'Keefe's other works and Hayne's words, I was excited to see what it looked like. And I must say... I was rather disappointed. The clouds look like white blobs. Maybe the piece was from a different time in O'Keefe's artistic journey than what I'm used to seeing. Maybe I need to see it in person. Whatever the reason, it just didn't have the same affect on me as it apparently did on Haynes.

As I continued reading, I came to the part where Haynes talks about everyone being an artist, and that while some people seem to be born with special gifts, these gifts only make it easier to learn. At first, I completely disagreed, but then I thought about it more and remembered a conversation I had with some friends who are math majors. They consider large math problems to be a form of art. Just because I don't consider something to be art (splatter painting, for example) doesn't mean it's not art to other people. So, after thinking about it, I agree with what Haynes thinks. Everyone can do math. I'm not good at it, so it just takes me longer. It would be the same if my math friends decided to paint a picture. They can do it, it would just be more difficult for them.