“I Can’t Even Draw A Straight Line!”

As an artist and a teacher of drawing and painting, I have heard this stock answer so often that it has infiltrated my nightmares. Asleep, I imagine long-suffering artists, toiling away in some deep level of Hades, attempting to draw perfectly straight lines with tree-like pencils and receiving severe punishment for failing to do so. My Father’s favorite line, when asked where my artistic abilities come from, is usually something like: “I don’t know where he got it, I can’t even draw a conclusion.” I am an artist. I have been actively drawing and painting since childhood, and I must tell you that I use a ruler to draw straight lines. There, I admitted it. So, my question to you is this: If the ability to draw straight lines is not a prerequisite to creating art, what is stopping you from trying? Maybe people offer up this stock excuse out of a fear of trying. I believe that this fear is not natural, but is something we are taught as we mature in this culture.

Now, I am not enough of an idealist to believe that every single person on this planet has a burning inner desire to draw and paint. I have met many people who, while they admire artwork, have no interest in creating it. I do however, believe that amongst you, Dear Viewers, is a subset who harbor an inner desire to make visual art. The problem is, sadly, that you have never been offered any kind of training or opportunity that would allow you to access that desire and find a way to enjoy some form of creative expression. It is my long-held belief that not one single person has ever been born a great artist. “Talent,” as it is currently understood, is a fiction. Artists who draw, paint, sculpt, carve or weave exceptionally well do so because they have spent years practicing their craft and learning from their mentors.

What some people are born with is a driving curiosity, a natural instinct to be observant and a willingness to ignore others who view art making as a waste of time and energy. When you were in high school, or if you are now, how were the kids who take art classes viewed? Were they ridiculed? Was art even offered at your school? When we are children, there are no limitations. We respond to the world with more honesty and originality than we will as adults. We spend hours upon hours doodling with crayons and markers, usually on paper, sometimes on the wall. We make creatures out of clay and imagine universes forgotten by our adult minds. But then, the pressures of friends and enemies, those who mock the effort to create, force us to give up the notion of enjoying art in favor of the really important things, like, watching television, or playing video games or hanging out at the mall.

People from other nations, who were educated as children overseas before they came to America, are besting us. America was, and remains, a nation of creators and innovators. But we are losing the edge. I think that we are losing the edge because we are progressively relegating the creative arts to a lower than deserved position in our schools. One aspect of making art is creative problem solving. Of how much value would the ability to find creative solutions to any problem be to you now? Suppose you had spent your entire academic career learning to approach challenges creatively? What if the usual solution wasn’t good enough for you? Imagine the possibilities.

My point, you ask? Let me put it this way. I think that many of us are suffering a form of stagnation. We lock ourselves in to doing this a particular way, that the easy way and the other in a most uninspired way. There are some forward thinkers who believe that “The Age of Information” in which we currently exist is shifting towards an “Age of Creativity.” I imagine that an age of creativity would favor those who enjoy coming up with new ideas and have the ability to express those ideas to others. I believe that the world needs creative people, now more than ever. I believe that we need to sweep the cobwebs out of our minds and that the creative arts are a broom. Art, and the human urge to create, is a very powerful force through which mountains are moved, beauty is relished, achievement is honored, problems are solved and humanity grows beyond self-made boundaries. Can’t draw a straight line? Well, what if your lines don’t need to be straight?

Chris Ingram