I was reminded today that art matters. One of my students was weary, uninspired. He said, "I don't have any enthusiasm for art. I haven't thought about painting. I'm not making any progress." He was wrong, of course. He has done some beautiful paintings and he gets better and better.
But his weariness spoke of other needs. Since he had just returned from Europe, I asked, "Did you not see anything worth painting?"
He brightened and described a door, a wall, some greenery growing around them that he had photographed to paint. But then he said, " I thought it was beautiful, but no one else will."
"But that's why you must paint," I said. "A camera cannot recognize beauty. Only a human can do that. You must paint so that others can see the beauty that they might otherwise miss. That is a gift to them."
