When I was 5 on my first day of school my mother was sent to pick me up around 2ish because I wouldn’t stop crying since I got there at 10. When she asked what was the matter I tearfully told her ‘I sat down and they told me to draw my favourite animal, but my favourite animal is a giraffe and I can’t draw one!’ admittedly I would have been damned happy for her to teach me how to draw one as she had an amazing knack for drawing, but instead she went apeshit at the teachers for letting me cry for 4 hours. I was really proud of her. I decided that I wasn’t an artist and to stay the hell away from crayons and colouring.
It wasn’t until I was in my 20’s I found out that I was colourblind from a colourblind workmate after trying 3 times to knit a bloody green sweater (a rare form that produced an extra cone in my eyes so I see colours more vibrantly and stereoscopically. Think of a Magic Eye picture and that’s almost it.) and also had a form of aphasia that meant that I couldn’t remember people’s faces, or have a picture in my mind of what I wanted to put onto paper. It just wasn’t there. It caused problems.
I can remember when I was 10 in the painting room squirting colours onto cardboard and tilting it to form the most amazing rainbows. Unfortunately when it dried it was 10 shades of bleh. I gave up arting.
I’m now fifty-mumble years old and have discovered that resin painting doesn’t go bleh and looks amazing! And I hope to give you a little glimpse of what I see through this medium.
I still have the colourblindness and aphasia, but now it means that I make amazing art, and have to check it out every hour or so to remember what I’ve done. It doesn’t dull and it’s a delight every time I see it! Enjoy!