FREE TO BE
I am so glad to be an American.
I am so lucky to be an artist in this country.
I can draw, paint, sculpt and assemble whatever I want, wherever my heart and mind take me.
I am free to exhibit my work in the manner of my choosing.
In the third grade, I had convinced my teacher with a large classroom that I was a model and gifted student. Towards the end of the school year, at a parent-teacher conference, it was discovered that I had done none of the work.
Busted, I was yanked out of the public school on the beach that my father had attended, and placed into a private one.
Thankfully, it was a secular school, with no religious affiliation or dogma to uphold. The education was also politically agnostic. With incessant timed drills, we learned to read well and compute numbers purposefully.
The curriculum had a quiet subtext on civics, democracy, individual freedom and the pursuit of reason. It drilled into us that this notion of governance was very precious, hard won and fragile.
Over the last 25 years, those crazy Silicon Valley boys and girls have created a technological megaphone for every individual. Today, there are many voices competing for room in our heads and hearts.
Fortunately, in my country, we get to choose which ones to listen to.
Reason is an abstract ideal, a guide that each one of us is free to pursue.
I am so proud and grateful to be an artist in America.
Art Report Today .com
