INSPIRATIONS by Jess Kirby

I was truly flattered when asked to contribute to this.  I also felt conflicted.  Who am I to tell other people about art?  Well, I’m Jessica Kirby and I may not know all there is to know about art, but I can share with you what I have learned so far.

Like everyone else, I’ve been drawing since I was a kid.  What kid doesn’t draw?  Some of my fondest memories of my childhood are of when I went to my grandparent’s house. They always had colouring books and paper for us to draw on. The coolest thing, the crayons and pencils were kept in an old cigar box. Well, I always thought that was cool.

  I kept drawing, but never thought I would ever do anything with it.  My “grown up” job was working in a pharmacy and I hated it so much. I quit and I’ve been working on my drawings since then. For a long time I felt very conflicted about that. Working in a pharmacy it was easy to know my role in society. I was there to help people by filling prescriptions, delivering drugs to the patient’s rooms and several other incredibly boring tasks that needed to be done. When I hung up my pharmacy hat and put on a different one, it was hard to define what I was doing. As a matter of fact I still have family members who think I sit around my house all day and play with my dogs. If I could get through life by doing just that, I would. It is funny how I ended up coming to terms with my decision and what it means to me to be an artist. I had recalled a conversation that I had with a nurse, when I was still working at the hospital.  I remembered how she had referred to a particular doctor as an artist.  At the time I just nodded in agreement, mostly so I wouldn’t have to carry on the conversation.  Eventually it made sense. When she referred to that doctor as an artist, what she meant was, he was exceptionally good at his job.  He went above and beyond what most doctors would do.  He spent more time on his patients in order to make sure he cared for all of their medical needs.  More importantly he inspired everyone who worked around him to do the best job that they could.  That, to me, is what an artist is supposed to do.  I don’t care if you paint with poo or tubes of paint that cost $100, if it doesn’t inspire anyone, or it doesn’t conjure any kind of emotion then you’re not doing your job.  Artists should be held to higher standards. Anyone can draw a square, but an artist should draw a square better than the average person. They should make other people want to draw better squares. That goes for any type of artist, not just visual. It also goes for any job. Teachers should inspire their students to learn. Doctors should inspire their patients to get healthy. The baker should inspire you to try something different.  We’re all stuck here on this planet together; we may as well inspire each other to be great.

A trip to the apple orchard inspired this. Sitting next to these all day long inspired me to eat the apples. Not all at once though. Got to save room for candy!

Planting these in my garden inspired me to draw them.

I saw this crazy pattern in a catalog and it inspired me to try and draw it. I’ve never done anything like this before, but I enjoyed almost every minute of it.

See more of Jess’s thoughts and art at chaoskirby.blogspot.com