It’s another rainy night in Amsterdam, and snow is on the forecast for tomorrow.
I just watched a Romanian IDFA (International Documentary Festival Amsterdam) documentary called “The World According to Ion B.”, and it’s about a homeless Romanian man who was creating collages through the decades of social upheaval in Romania. He spent the latter part of his life drunk and dirty, but he never gave up making his collages. Someone eventually found out about his talent, and organised exhibitions for him, at the same time getting him off the streets and back on track.
At some point, he made it home to his little village (Zapodeni) and met his siblings and childhood friends, evoking strong emotions and fond memories.
Last year, his work was exhibited alongside the work of Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamps, and a little later, he had a solo exhibition in Paris.
As I watched this film, I was reminded of Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh decided to teach himself how to sketch and draw a long time before Ion, but van Gogh was extremely good at what he did. As I found out more about his life during Museum Night at the van Gogh Museum, I decided that I really should teach myself how to draw as well. Of course, saying that right after describing van Gogh rather gives off the impression that I want to emulate his achievements, but that is really far away from the truth.
I have always believed, very strongly, in my own lack of artistic ability. The only right-hemisphere-of-the-brain thing I thought I could handle was languages, but after nearly a year and a half back in the country of my birth, I still do not speak Dutch.
Either I really do not have any artistic ability, or I am not trying hard enough. I wanted to become more comfortable with music, and I think I improved, with efforts to familiarize myself with the guitar and harmonica (though I am admittedly still rather amateurish). I wanted to be able to jot down my thoughts better, and now I am writing (by hand) much more and, hopefully, better too. I’m trying to be ambidextrous but training my right hand to be as good as my left is really difficult.
I think my next two challenges will be:
1. Teach myself how to sketch and draw,
2. Become good in Dutch.
This is probably the earliest anyone has started making New Year Resolutions, but these could be mine! Wish me luck or even better, do it in Dutch. :)
