Bad Blogging

 

Ceriana, Italy

 

 

 

I've recently learned, having read an extensive article on the subject of blogs, that I've been doing my art blog incorrectly. It seems that when you have an art blog, you should stick to the subject of art, whether specifically addressing painting techniques, how to sell your art...you know. The boring stuff.

 

Anyone who has read any of my posts will understand that I have been - it would seem - a bad blogger. Or a bad artist. Maybe both. But I'm well-prepared for self-recrimination, having had a lengthy history of going about things in entirely the wrong way. I shall expound.

 

I studied piano with a renowned teacher. For about thirteen years. As a student of this very demanding teacher, I had to learn ten pieces per school year, and I had to participate in an audition at the end of each school year, in which a judge would ask me to play several of these ten pieces. Very, very scary. Intimidating is a bigger word. I'll go with that. Anyway...I always got good marks for most things, but every year and on most every piece, I received a nice but firm negative mark for fingering. I don't know why, but I mostly ignored the recommended fingering, choosing to use what seemed most natural to me. Which was incorrect.

 

I could bore you with other examples of doing things the wrong way. And the inevitable self-recrimination that would follow. And much of the time, what would follow that was the continuation of wrong-doing. As I recall, the apostle Paul had somewhat the same problem. So I'm in good company, though I doubt that I could lay claim to any other commonality with him.

 

But. There's always a rebuttal. Especially to anything that is considered to be the standard. If we all adhered to the standard, we'd still be wearing powdered wigs and giant painted black moles on our faces (though I've known a few ladies and gentlemen who didn't need to paint on the mole adornment). Not to belabor a point, but we might still be dressing like the Flintstones and using our feet to power ourselves up. I digress.

 

In defense of my wrongly-written little blog, I believe that art reflects real-life events and emotions. Art is life. And life often leads to art in its various forms. So I will continue to write the way I write, which is often not specifically about art. My life, my thoughts, my opinions, as well as my art, are intertwined in a convoluted, confusing and (I hope) often-amusing stream of consciousness.

 

Footnote. As an adult, I've disciplined myself to play with the right fingering. Most of the time. But I once read an article in a music magazine that suggested that there is an old piano-teaching technique which instructed students to deliberately play with the wrong fingering in order to increase their agility. Ha!

 

I don't get to say "Ha!" often, so allow me this one. The above painting is of a doorway in Ceriana, Italy...an enchanting little town to which I long to return. There may very well be more about my adventure in Italy last summer. But you'll have to wait. Ciao! (How pretentious is that?)