Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace ↑
A fear of being identified as an artist
Sculpting in steel had already been a passion of mine for four or five years when a colleague at Hallmark asked whether I would be interested in giving a demonstration of my craft to the students of the grade school where his wife served as the cultural arts coordinator (a.k.a. Picture Lady). I accepted the invitation and found it such a delightful experience that I made visiting schools part of my sculpting adventure for the next several years. I always began with the same introduction.
“Hi! My name is Gordon MacKenzie and, among other things, I am an artist. I’ll bet there are other artists here, too. There have to be with all the beautiful pictures and designs you have hanging in your classrooms and up and down the halls. I couldn’t help but notice them when I first got here this morning.
“Beautiful pictures. They made me feel very wonderful! Very energized! So many bright colors and cool shapes. I felt more at home when I saw them because they made me realize there are other artists here, besides me. I’m curious. How many artists are there in the room? Would you please raise your hands?”
The pattern of responses never varied.
First Grade: En masse the children leapt from their chairs, arms waving wildly, eager hands trying to reach the ceiling. Every child was an artist.
Second Grade: About half the kids raised their hands, shoulder high, no higher. The raised hands were still.
Third Grade: At best, 10 kids out of 30 would raise a hand. Tentatively. Self-consciously.
And so on up through the grades. The higher the grade, the fewer children raised their hands. By time I reached sixth grade, no more than one or two did so and then only ever-so-slightly — guardedly — their eyes glancing from side to side uneasily, betraying a fear of being identified by the group as a “closet artist.”
Gordon MacKenzie, 1996, from the book Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace