*** Is creating a form of escapism?***
Apparently i showed an aptitude for art and craft at a very young age.... I was able to draw birds by the age of 4 and could sew basic things.
By age 9 my talent had grown and developed some... i had completed and won a prize for my first cross stitch and had won several art awards by then.
When i was 11 years old i was heart broken when i didnt receive a prize despite being the grand champion artist in the whole region (best work out of the whole area's twelve or so schools - i was pretty proud - i still have that collage on my wall to this day)- simply because we had entered my art without knowing it HAD to be entered through a school.
About this age is when life sort of went to the dogs, as they say...it wasnt turning out like the books said it would... things sucked! At that point i THREW myself into art, craft, nature, photography and literature..........
i'm pretty sure - to escape reality.
By the age of 18 i had a photo album full of my prize tickets for varying arts and crafts; several art awards, and had won two champion places for my cross stitches. i had been selling my creations for several years by this age also.
This was the life for me!
While escaping reality i could create the most wonderful things! i enjoyed it! i was (am) good at it! and other people liked my creations!! go figure!
Is it so wrong to WANT to escape reality then?
I still dont know the answer to that question almost 20 years later, but have learned a few more lessons along the way to becoming an even more talented and awarded, multi media artiste.
I have continued to win prizes year after year for my work, but have had to battle "the man" and the world for my identity and my right to art and BE my inner artiste. The battle rages on, and may for a while yet.... i WILL continue the good fight though - and continue my art........
if art is escapism....... let's all escape!
;)
