Stop what you are doing right now!  Look around you and imagine that there never was an artists in this world.  Erase from your mind all the things of art that you see.

The Apple on you i-phone was created by an artist.  Erase it.  Any Jewelry on you hands or neck?  Erase them.  The lamp shade, the sofa, the table, your shirt, your sunglasses – make them all just black and functional.  All wall hangings must be erased.  Curtains and shades? – just hang up old newspaper – it will do the job. No interior design artists exist in the “no artist” world.

Get rid of the Museums of Art In our cities across the United States. Erase all building architecture & landscaping.

Sixty years ago I was graduating from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Engineering – We engineers had our own “Engineering Hall” up on the hill, overlooking the Cathedral of Learning where the art students went to classes.

In 1958, there were very few girls seeking a Masters degree in Engineering.  Being that there were a lot of girls seeking a Master of Fine Arts degree, we engineers soon learned our way around the Cathedral of Learning.

We figured that pretending to appreciate art was a small price to pay to be surrounded by so many young ladies. 

That pretending soon began to sneak into my soul.  I began to appreciate art for real.  For an engineer, that is an unexpected “Oh My.”  I purchased a camera, and spent hours in the University’s darkroom creating photo art.  Engineers’s need artists, I learned – or is it that artists need engineers.

I could see that we engineers could never design a new 1961 Corvette without the help of the artists. In fact I think it was the other way around, we engineers were just putting an engine and driveshaft into the artist’s piece of work. The Corvette is a real piece of art.

Anyway, my way of thinking shifted from “engineering first” to “art first.” The artists do the design, then the engineer’s job is to create machines to punch out the pieces of metal, plastic, and fiberglass. Then we engineers created an assembly line to bring it all together to turn out the artist’s Corvette – a piece of art that was any engineer’s dream.

Keep thinking about a no artist world. The artist designs the picture on the box and the engineer gets the cereal to your kitchen table. The artist says you need holes in your Jeans and the engineer figures out how to wear holes in your jeans, at just the right spot, before you put them on of course.

Study the environment around you and name the hundreds of things that had the artist’s hand.  Now go back to what you were doing.

The next time you meet an artist, bow down to them and say “Oh my, Thank you for making this world a beautiful place.”

In my case, I will also say “Would you like to go to your art gallery this evening?” The Blue Heron Restaurant is a wonderful Art Gallery that even serves great dinners. The team of artists. that Gloria organizes for the gallery, make the Blue Heron Restaurant a beautiful place.  Thanks!

I hope my photo art work helped make my story more interesting,      Oh my, maybe I am an artist?

If you see see art, you saw a beautiful world.