I had a studio visitor this morning that asked a question I’ve never been asked, and I thought it would be fun to write about it. What he asked was, “So if you do art as a full time job, what the heck do you do for a hobby?”
This is the part of my job that I just really love. I love visitor interaction. That is what is best about working in the River Arts District here in Asheville. I regularly get people from all over the country that are interested in exactly the same thing I’m interested in (art) and we regularly have conversations. Especially this year, that just feels so emotionally healthy!
Okay, so…YES. I have hobbies. They are (in random order):
Learning Italian. I love the way Italian language sounds. It’s like “sexy Spanish”. It’s just so beautiful and emotive to listen to. I have always wanted to learn Italian and so practically every day for the last three years, I start the day with on-line Italian lessons. Parlo italiano come un ragazzo di tre anni (i speak Italian like a three year old boy) but…that’s better than a two year old. One day I’ll be as fluent as a four year old! Benissimo!)
Discovering the ancient context for the Bible. I grew up with the standard American Protestant brand of religion and that’s fine, but I never was taught how people back 3000+ years ago in an eastern culture would have understood what is undoubtedly the most influential book in history. Maybe I’m a nerd. Okay, I’m a nerd but…I absolutely love grabbing my trowel and brush and discovering ancient artifacts in the dirt (of history). This has changed and wonderfully challenged my basic life assumptions.
Growing vegetables in my yard. I love the smell of dirt. Good dirt is amazing. I love learning about how to grow healthy dirt because healthy dirt begets healthy vegetables. There is an organic farm with a farm stand just a block away from where we live, so I just focus on what I can’t get the farm, like Magda squash and yellow wax beans and eggplant. I’ve learn out to cook eggplant so it’s not gross!!! (This an an accomplishment, my friends.)
I love hiking. Walking is great, but hiking is the best (this requires in incline). There are so many amazing destinations here in western North Carolina. Waterfalls, hidden meadows, mountaintops…I love them all. Discovering these places is truly like pressing the reset button in my soul.
Baroque and classical music. I love Bach. He is truly the hybrid between math and sound. He’s amazing. Regarding classical music, Mozart was a genius but I am a huge fan of Chopin. Chopin can bring tears to my eyes. And Beethoven and Brahm’s piano sonatas and symphonies — they take me to another place. It’s my dads fault. He was a piano teacher, and my parents regularly took me to the Hollywood Bowl growing up, so I was kind of destined to love all things classical.
Those are my main hobbies (well, and yes…BACON). Art is not my hobby. Art is who I am and what I do to make a living. Art is the air I breathe and all the rest comes from the heart of an artist. I’m okay with that. :)
