When I awakened to the notion that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up, I was a single parent with two kids and well into my thirties.
'The Peek' 20" X 20" soft ground etching by Coco Berkman "Genius is childhood recovered at will" Charles Baudelair
With the day to day survival of our little family my primary concern, I shelved the artist notion and made a promise to myself that if made it into my old age, I would spend those years seriously creating art.
Six years ago when I turned 50, I did take the leap every artist eventually feels compelled to take and made the art making my priority.I am presently more committed than ever to producing my work and it is different in every way from the work I thought I'd be producing. I had visions of large abstract canvases...with colors and complexities akin to Philip Guston or Howard Hodgkins. Indeed, I set out on this path and then one day was compelled to change my tack. I look at my current work and am mystified. My work entails much drawing and most often has comic figures and obscure narratives, obscure even to me.
I am convinced that the person making this art is my six year old self who used to spend hours in the library reading books on how to make little people out of acorns. The six year old me who would awaken every morning literally for years determined to build myself a tree house in our yard but never having the materials or tools or knowledge or freedom to pull it off.
Six years ago when I turned 50, I did take the leap every artist eventually feels compelled to take and made the art making my priority.I am presently more committed than ever to producing my work and it is different in every way from the work I thought I'd be producing. I had visions of large abstract canvases...with colors and complexities akin to Philip Guston or Howard Hodgkins. Indeed, I set out on this path and then one day was compelled to change my tack. I look at my current work and am mystified. My work entails much drawing and most often has comic figures and obscure narratives, obscure even to me.
I am convinced that the person making this art is my six year old self who used to spend hours in the library reading books on how to make little people out of acorns. The six year old me who would awaken every morning literally for years determined to build myself a tree house in our yard but never having the materials or tools or knowledge or freedom to pull it off.
The promise to my older self made in my 30's and 40's is really a promise to my six year old self. The old lady procures the materials for the kid. She sets up the workspace, puts out the papers and inks and tools and gives the kid permission to make a mess beyond belief and then she cleans it all up afterwards.
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