taken in my garden last July
I don’t take myself too seriously. You can tell this from my title. But, I do take the verb “to see” very seriously – as well as the question, “What’s in your inner artist?”
When my kids were little, Dora the Explorer was a popular tv show. Dora was a little girl who liked to explore…….
If you have read this blog closely enough you have probably sensed two things: one is that this is a highly cathartic experience for me and meant to capture and develop the “child within” experiences I missed out on in earlier days and two, that I, like Dora, adore to explore, particularly avec la caméra.
I have often pondered the world of the artist. What is the true definition of “artist”? I have seen a little bit of the world’s great art – David, Mona Lisa, Monet’s panels, the Girl with the Pearl Earring, some of Renoir, some of the greatest art in Italy in France and I am blown away by all. I have worked with an artist or two in my time as well. Chef Sim Cass and William Welch, an architect, stand out in my mind. To me, an artist is someone extraordinary – someone I can sense right away has an indescribable gift-set, and who feels compelled to explore, share and execute these gifts.
But, me? Mais, non! My kids would describe me as some sort of silly, perhaps-going-crazy woman running around with her camera and snapping pictures in some giddy state. So, let’s see – let’s take the test:
According to Merriam-Webster:
art·ist noun \ˈär-tist\
: a person who creates art : a person who is skilled at drawing, painting, etc.
: a skilled performer
: a person who is very good at something
Hmmmmm………… I don’t think I qualify for any of these……… but, whatever………. I may feel compelled, but it is more to have fun and express myself in my own way while incorporating impulses around me. I can handle the camera, but can I translate what I see through a lens onto another medium?
One of my longtime interests is the area of cookie art. On Sunday evening I happened to catch an episode of Culinate NY. One of the features was on One Tough Cookie, aka Gail Dosik who spent a bit of her time explaining how, when she was a child she was considered to not have any artistic talent. Nowadays, she beams with pride as she provides output which dazzles. And, in the process, she has great fun. You can feel her self-actualization through the screen! Here is another woman who is an inspiration to me! I have applied to go to one of her classes – you will see why I need this further along.
Is the design and decorating of cookies art? Some people may scoff at this assertion. Sweet Ambs is perhaps my all time favorite cookie site. Amber Speigel is really quite amazing and her work stands out.
Sweet Ambs Hyacinth cookies:
I do have a desire to tie together these two passions – photography and the application of mental images to cookies and thereby channeling my inner “artist”, and I’ve done a little dabbling on my own. However, it’s clear I need a tune up and further instruction….. Hmmmm….. we’ll see……..
http://foodcurated.com/2013/06/a-decorated-cookie-you-wont-want-to-spit-out-one-tough-cookie/
A sample of Gail’s wonderful work (courtesy One Tough Cookie). You should really watch the show to get a full appreciation for her talent. This looks like fun to me!
and finally, for my husband, the long-suffering Mets fan: 
I identified with her story closely.
For years I followed the messages in my head which told me I “should” be doing this or that. I “needed” to stay on a path of what was expected of me and of what I expected of myself, instead of paying attention to the creative impulses coursing through my veins, just under the surface of what I WAS doing. Later, I embarked upon that all-consuming vocation of child-rearing – that 20+ year engagement during which every morsel of your own self gets sublimated under the needs of your little to not-so-little ones (I’m an all-or-nothing-at-all type). I’m not complaining, my two now-adult children are the apples of my eye. I love and cherish everything about them and have no regrets. But now that they are past 20 something, I’m “turning that finger around” as Ike Graham says to Maggie Carpenter in Runaway Bride. Who are you and what do you really want to do today? To some this may feel completely normal. For, me I had to teach myself to do this over a long period of time – to get in touch with what I felt I wanted to do and then to actually do it. This is what I ask myself every morning – it’s like a pure heretofore unknown indulgence – and this is what I am trying to channel. With a heavy bent toward having FUN.
I’m no “artist” in the classical sense, that’s for sure. But, I do like to dabble in the areas I feel drawn to (pun intended).
I, like Gail Dosik says, don’t have the ability to draw well on paper. But, you will see by watching this segment on Culinate, that her skills have come a very long way. I’ve taken painting classes and I’ve spent lots of time through the years trying to draw. But, I do have artistic impulses that have been harboring around since I doodled-up the covers of my spiral notebooks with flowers, dresses, eyes, sunshines and birds back in the third grade. Hmmm…..what to do with them?
Yes, you know I play around with my cameras, my keyboard and get into trouble in the kitchen, the garden, at Farmer’s Markets, antique stores and kitchen-supply shops. I have a deep and unfulfilled desire to travel to certain places – to see!
Seeing is greatly important to me. I love physical beauty and so I find that I naturally pursue this – a constant bombardment of images from a single strawberry to a vast landscape. The dew covered petals of a single rose. A beautiful house. A streetscape. A coastline alone and how a village has been constructed on it. A cookie. A pie. A croissant. A Danish……. I went looking for a few pics I feel strongly about. Herewith, my own photos from my current repertoire:
Strawberry:
Solvang, CA in March:
Dew-covered rose petals:
A village grows upward from the coastline, in Positano:
A streetscape:
Taormina, Sicily
Paris
A beautiful house – the President’s residence in Paris:
my favorite house when I was growing up – on Spring Valley Road – now it’s gone – a terrible tragedy!
A cookie:
my first attempt at iced shortbread butterflies LOL 
peanut butter chocolate chip
A pie:
A croissant:
my first croissants at Pastry school – the pain au chocolate look better -hardly of Parisian-quality; working with Chef Sim
A Danish:
at PB Boulangerie Wellfleet, MA,
To me, these photos are part of my artistry, because they are personal and I connect to them.
I will probably always aspire to become an artist. This is a noble cause, I believe. And, I will continue to adore – as I am doing right now as I watch a bluebird outside on my fence.
Well, maybe I need to stick to the camera. I’ll keep you posted on this little effort – to express some of my photos on the cookie “tablet”. I’ll be off now – to see what I can see today.