“There are always flowers for those who want to see them” - Henri Matisse
The Art Institute buzzed with activity. We all strived to perfect our photography skills on the way to a degree. One of the more promising students, Jane, obsessed over taking photos of colorful flowers.
Colorful flower after colorful flower photo flowed from Jane’s portfolio. I looked at it with a long eye. “Surely the world was filled with more interesting things. Just look at my abstracts,” I said to myself.
Later in life I started painting. My painting efforts struggled. Finally, I found an instructor named Allen Reamer. Allen looked at my work and said, “it needs a better treatment of color, consider color first when you paint.”
Only years later, would I finally grasp the concept. Then I realized that Jane’s study of flowers and color put her miles ahead of me. I know she is out there someplace, a better photographer and maybe painter than I.
David Young
