Appreciating Art

I was never really born to be an artist. When I was 8 years old, my parents enrolled me in a tabla class. This however was not meant to last as during the first lesson, I grew impatient with my tabla teacher for making me drum in the same slow, dull and repetitive tune. At that age, starting on the basics did not make sense to a kid who straight away wanted to be able to drum away like the guy on TV. And so my parents' dream of seeing their son become a tabla player crashed on the first day itself.

Then about 2 years ago, I enrolled myself in a guitar class. Not really because I had a thing for guitar, but more because I heard girls had a thing for guys who could play guitar and so I saw it as the final solution to my predicament. Soon enough though I found out that even girls were not a strong enough motivation for me to prick my nails on the metal guitar string and so, my second experiment came crashing down as well.

So I went back to what I had been before that. I became an appreciator of art or briefly put, I went back to listening to my mp3. Until a couple of weeks ago, I chanced upon some Indian classical violinists. On first impression, they were just great! Skilled, melodious and so adept at varying the pace of their play, it was literally love at first sight. As such, when I heard that one of the most renowned violinists in India was coming down to NUS to perform, I bought a ticket for $14 and therefore made my first sizeable investment in arts.

And then I slept through half his performance. Now the way I see it, there are 2 possible reasons for that.My sleep could have been induced either because the music was soothing enough to put my tired mind to sleep, or after having gone through one and a half years of NUS lectures, I was well trained to sleep under the more uninteresting of atmospheres. I am bound to think it was the latter.

Because I did listen to his performance and there was this repetitiveness creeping up. Yes, I do admit that even if he was doing the same thing, that same thing still required a lot of skill. But after more than 20 years of experience appreciating art, I know it when a piece of art lives up to my 14 dollar investment. What I honestly felt about the performance was that it was somewhat like Inception. Meaning sometimes, people claim a movie, a performance or a painting is great not really because they know it is great, but more because they have no idea what it is about and that sense of inferiority in their lack of awareness coupled with everyone else seeming to have figured it out forces them to come to that quick judgement without really thinking.

But thats life. For me, the money was a worthwhile investment in an artistic experiment, a proof that my best days lies not as an artist but as an art appreciator. Hopefully one day, my son will grow up to be the great tabla player that his father was not born not be.

Though honestly speaking, if he really were my son, I would not count on it.