Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Letter
Insight and inspiration for your artistic career.

Dear Artist,

Yesterday I went to a local elementary school--grades one to seven. I set up in the library, and two classes at a time came in to watch me paint and hear what I had to say. The school was in a new suburban neighborhood. Dorothy came too, but she was swarmed and had to leave. I asked if anyone was willing to take her for a walk and 45 hands went up. A teacher took her. I squeezed out and told the kids that in situations like this I try to visualize nice places I'd been. I told them I sometimes started with the foreground and worked toward the back. Some kids were raring to ask questions. Sometimes five hands were in the air at the same time. I had to keep my answers terse.

"What is that you are painting?" (A mountain and a lake.) "Are those supposed to be clouds?" (No, it's the snow on the mountains.) "You put in the snow before the mountains?" (Sometimes.) "Why are you using that colour?" (It seems right.) "Do you paint other things besides this one?" (Yes.) "Can you paint people?" (I try.) "Were you always a good drawer?" (Yes, pretty good.) By now I was painting with my other mind. One class left and another arrived.

"Have you always done this?" (Yes.) "How long have you been painting?" (All my life.) "How old are you now?" (71.) "Do you think you have more time left?" (Yes.) "Are there some paintings you will never be able to sell?" (Yes.) "Which ones?" (The personal, family ones, and the bad ones.)

Some kids were interested in the concept of failing. "Have you made many bad paintings?" (Yes.) "How many?" (Thousands.) "What do you do with them?" (Most I throw out; some I hope to fix one day.) "Could you give me one of them?" (I'll consider it.) "Why do you bother with the bad ones when you already know how to paint?" (I don't know.) "Is this one of them?" (Could be.)

One class seemed remarkably concerned with economics. "How much did you get for the first one you sold?" ($15.) "How much do you get for them now?" ($2000 to $50,000.) "What's the most you ever got for one?" ($100,000.) "How much do you make, anyway?" (Quite a bit.) "Are you rich?" (Fairly.) "How many cars do you have?" (17.) "Do you have a Lamborghini?" (No.) At this point a teacher interjected that they should stick to questions about art. And so it went. Eventually the final buzzer sounded. I was exhausted. I went home. I had to have a drink.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "Every child comes with the message that God is not yet tired of the man." (Rabindranath Tagore)

Esoterica: Nothing like a day with the kids to cut to the chase. I was just able to bring a couple of paintings home and fix them up this morning. "The unconscious mind is decidedly simple, unaffected, straightforward and honest," said family psychologist and cultural theorist Milton Erikson. "It hasn't got all of this facade, this veneer of what we call adult culture. It's rather simple, rather childish. It's direct and it's free."

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