At the beginning of every year I, and most of us, I think, have to come to terms with the fact that the last number that I write on the date has changed. I write the date so frequently for work and business and general life things and the days change with the sun and the months change with the moons (essentially) and so I am used to them. Admittedly, I pay little attention to the cycles of the moon and there are days that I am unaware of the sun at all; like today, actually--I don't believe I stepped outside. I didn't go outside today because I believe the weather didn't even come close to being above freezing. I just didn't want to deal with that--much like how I do not want to deal with writing a new number on the date. So my my quarrels with the new year are legitimate on a psychological and physical "no one's body should be exposed to sub-freezing temperatures for an extended period of time" level but also petty on a realistic level.
The only evidence that I was a star on the Spotswood Elementary School stage (that's me on the right, obviously). Photo cred: one of my parents?
And so are my earliest memories of doing art.
My earliest memory of acting was an elementary school production of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (possibly pictured above). It was just as silly as it sounds, but, looking back on it, it was kind of racist because it cast the only brown girl who was interested in acting (also pictured above), a friend who I have known since kindergarten, as Pocahontas. I believe that she pointed it out at the time (she was and is brilliant). It also asked young audiences to deal with depression and suicide without a lot of context or support. I "played" Meriwether Lewis, who committed suicide after the expedition, and I, as the character, had to announce to the audience that I did so at the very end of the play.
This isn't me but this is pretty representative of what being in the Orff Ensemble meant
I also remember quitting elementary school choir by going out to recess instead of going to choir and not telling the choir instructor. I think a student came out and tried to retrieve me and the other boys who had jumped ship (it was a very gendered abandonment, if I remember correctly), but we just refused to go back in and there was nothing they could do about it, since choir was voluntary. I mostly left choir because there was a new music director and she was kind of terrible. The previous years we had a director who was GREAT! She directed what was called the Orff Ensemble--an ensemble of glockenspiels and marimbas (like in the video above) and other percussive instruments of the like. We were so good that our school won a prize for like 10 or 20 thousand dollars from Oscar Meyer (for some reason??????????????????) and the Wienermobile (pictured below) came to our school and I got a tour.
Fun fact: I've been inside this terrifying thing
The two memories I have of being involved with visual arts are of my elementary school art teacher telling me that I should wash my hands with warm water because it gets the germs off better (a fact that has stayed with me for life) and my middle school art teacher telling me that I couldn't draw. So, I did what most little boys do when they get told they can't do an art form--I quit drawing and I quit painting. I came back to drawing and painting in recent years because I was forced to take a visual art course, which I really actually enjoyed, but since I didn't develop an early habit of it, it's hard for me to pick it up again.
I find it interesting that the majority of my early memories of art are negative, because I, mostly have stuck with being an artist. There were periods of my life where I told myself that I wasn't going to be an artist, but I kept singing or acting or writing anyways, even if the art I do is just for myself, it still counts as art and it is still very important to me. I'm excited to begin sharing my work in a more public setting and, though I hope it will turn into getting jobs for photography or writing, it's mostly for myself--to organize my work and define who I am and what I do for myself. I think my next blog posts will be about my photography or my work as a theatre artist in a little bit later period of my life. Maybe high school.