In the past few weeks Isabel has created scores of drawings which all contain the same elements: sun, grass, flowers, clouds (sometimes referred to as "birds"), girl, and house.
I always enjoy the sense of proportion and scale in these pictures. As portrayed in this archetypical example of her art, the flowers are invariably larger than the girl, the sun, the clouds, and the house (shown in blue, bottom left, and yes I had to ask what it was). After viewing dozens of these mini-masterpieces, I realized at long last that if one were to include tangerine trees and marmalade skies, we would have an adequate representation of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
Anyway.
Several months ago I read this fascinating piece about how violin virtuoso Joshua Bell decided to conduct an interesting social experiment. He dressed up in jeans and a t-shirt and played the role of a street performer one morning to pedestrians in busy downtown DC. How do you suppose these roughly 1,100 people who passed by during his 47-minute performance reacted to an acclaimed concert violinist passionately performing his art? How would you react?
The article raises a lot of questions about whether ordinary people can recognize genius, or appreciate beauty, when encountered out of context.
Let's just say that this gave me a lot to ponder. As an adoring mother I can clearly see the beauty in Isabel's crude illustrations. After all, I have optimum conditions for appreciation of her efforts. And street performers? I find myself stopping more often now to hear them play, paying more attention, and being considerably more generous.
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