When Good Hobbies Turn Bad

There was a time when I was the queen of hobbies. I must have taken up dozens of hobbies which having experimented with, I quickly put back down. I suppose I had a need to feel accomplished, and goodness knows I reveled more in the accomplished tasks than in the actual practice of whatever hobby I had chosen to pursue.

I learned to knit from instructions in the Book of Knowledge, a vast encyclopedia of facts, geography, fairy tales and lessons in everyday life that was my constant reference when I was young. But knitting was tedious work, I soon found, and having begun with the intentions of knitting fabulous sweaters, I ended up making several pairs of mittens and one or two hats once I had discovered the joy of circular knitting needles.

I am afraid the same held true for crochet. Plans for large, warm afghans to cuddle up in on chilly winter nights ended up being pillows or afghans done in a large, open woven design that did little to keep in warmth but reduced the time it took to finish a project to a couple of days at most. I found crochet to be even more tension-causing than knitting and I am still not sure if several loose fillings were a result of the teeth-grinding that usually accompanied each row of crochet.

I turned to the arts, with an eye to "learning" to draw and paint. Much work went into learning how to produce a few things - a square-rigged ship, an apple blossom - despite my frustrating lack of ability to realistically render three-dimensional objects into two dimensions. I have two or three pieces of artwork that were produced during this period. They are sufficiently well done to elicit the approval of friends who can't draw at all but I would never show them to anyone who actually possesses any artistic talent.

It may be that writing is simply another one of these hobbies, except that I never studied writing, never planned any writing, don't bother working hard enough at it to cause my teeth to shatter and can't say if I ever produced anything worth the reading. I think of all my hobbies, it may be the one I do just because I like to do it. Perhaps that's more important than whether or not I do it very well.

Student Art Online

From the time I was a young girl, I had aspirations in the area of art and drawing. I asked for and received an art kit for Christmas. I followed all the lessons, practiced all the techniques and worked with patience and diligence until I had experience enough to realize that I was not "gifted". Lacking the natural talent to be an artist however, was not a total failure - for I find often that having not quite enough talent is sometimes what is needed to recognize real talent when it does exist.

And my interest caused me to spur interest in my young nephew, who showed such a natural gift and ability, that he went on to art school. I realize that inspiring and encouraging talent is the second greatest ability to possessing that talent.

That's why I wanted to highlight an online gallery for the artwork of art students. Some among these students are tomorrow's art legends. There was a time when no one had heard of Picasso, after all. These works are from students at art schools, colleges and universities all over the country and they place their art for sale here.

Nearly every style, medium and genre is represented. If you want to support the arts and these students, go browse the gallery. You can search by artist, medium, genre, price and even color. I think it's wonderful that these new artists can display their work and have a chance to sell it. Think how exciting that must be! I can only liken it to the experience of a writer/blogger who has just received his first comment and realizes that someone is actually reading. For the artist, he knows someone sees what he sees, and believes it is of worth. This gallery is just another way the Internet is opening up avenues of expression for all creative artists.