Art Exposure

 

When I was a young lad, perhaps in junior high or the last year of elementary school, I cannot remember, my mother took me into Washington, DC to The National Theater, to see Broadway plays.  

I saw OKLAHOMA, WEST SIDE STORY, SOUND OF MUSIC, CAMELOT, STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, MUSIC MAN...  are a few of the ones I can remember.

My mother had annual tickets to The National Theater, and I was invited when one of her club members could not attend.

When she was not taking me to the theater, she was taking me to a variety of Art Galleries in the Washington, DC area to familiarize me with that side of life.

I remember going to one art gallery to see a modern art show and the paintings made me wonder why anyone would buy them.  They were mostly one solid color with a circle of another color in the corner, or a strip of another color going down one side.  The price tag as I recall was $10,000.

Regardless of what my mother's intention may or may not have been, I had a strong interest in art galleries and the theater most of my life after I graduated from high school.

I also tried being an artist, fooling around with charcoal drawings, watercolors, acrylics, and oils.  My interest in being an artist lasted about five years when I finally realized that without lessons from someone who knew what they were doing, I was just wasting my time.