Did you know there are World Heritage  Sites – There are hundreds of them.  United States has 23 and France has 43. Did you know that many of these sites in France are preserving art that is 30,000 years old?

The Great Ceiling of Rouffignac, one of the world’s oldest and most beautiful art galleries,   is located in Southwest France.  Cro-Magnons, the first members of Homo sapiens, settled in Europe 45,000 years ago.  They most likely were the first artists. They worked on the walls and ceilings of the caves at Rouffignac and many others caves in Europe.

Area of the caves

Let us, you and me, think about why they created art.  – Some say it was just doodling, some say it was done by folks high on weed, some say it was like a book  to record history, but most likely it was part of some form of clan ritual.  But, were the artists men or women?  How many artists painted in the caves?

Now that got me to researching a little more. In the caves of Dordogne, more than 60 images of mammoths, horses and ibex are depicted in simple, confident lines that show the artisthad startling talent.  Researchers determined there may have been 5 or more artists working together on a single cave wall. They speculated on that count by looking at how many art styles there were. Each artist had different views in their mind.

This cave art is declared a World Heritage Sites.  The Cro-Magnon’s were true artists.  They did not have an iPhone camera to record what they saw.  Nooooooo, Nooooooo, they created what was in their mind.   Whether they were driven by idle doodling, smoking a little pot, or depicting what the invisible Gods needed, they presented what was in their mind.  They remembered what they saw and then made it a little more startling by letting their mind create ART!   That is what I do with PhotoShop and Coreal Painter.

Let us, you and me, think about why I create art.   I take reality and let my mind create art as my mind sees it.  Noooo, Nooooo, I do not smoke a little pot.  I do not casually doodle.  I work hard at my art and I do not create images for the invisible Gods, I create art for you.

I really do create art for two reasons:

1. To take on the challenge offered by the computer’s software.  I been taking on that computer software challenge ever since I first met a computer in 1956.   The computer has not won yet!!!

2. To bring a smile to your face.  Some people really laugh when they view my art. I am not sure if they are laughing with me or at me. – In any case, they laugh and that makes me smile.  THANKS

So, those are the two reasons I do computer art and write these little stories.

In the waiting room, I stared at this real wall.

My mind saw this and I created this art wall in  PhotoShop

On the left is Charles looking at Breakfast – On the right is Grandpa’ vision of the Breakfast he will make for Charles.

As I saw the Heavy Rocket go up this week.

My mind went to work, created it’s own image, and drew it on the PhotoShop cave. “God Bless America”

Another “God Bless America” scene. A foggy sunrise from my back porch yesterday.

But, Gloria misses the excitement of New York City. So my mind went to work in the PhotoShop cave and created this scene off our back porch for her! Oh my, God Bless America.

Every day you are blessed with potential art. Just look at the clouds in the sky, or a moon in early morning, or the falling snow making a halo around a street light.

Your mind will create an image. Put what your mind saw on paper, challenge the computer software and digitize it as I did, or just visualize it and move on to the next time you look up at the sky — In any case you truly are an artist.

Being an artist is fun even if you never put your art image on paper.   Just helping your mind create the art is a fun way to study and appreciate the sky, the moon, the snow, and anything else that is around you.  That is why I think there is art.

THE END