Jimmy Stewart and My Refrigerator Door

Self-portrait circa 1978

I've been thinking about this "refrigerator door" concept for a long time. Just like the stick figure drawings we put out as kids, not everything we do as artists (or writers, or musicians) is really ready for the world stage...or is it?

What does this have to do with Jimmy Stewart? Let me explain.

When I was a kid, I drew a lot. Many kids do. Some households have a
special place for their kids' art: they stick it up on the refrigerator door. If the kids are productive, the door can get pretty cluttered, so some parents let each child choose which of his or her masterpieces will go up on that hallowed refrigerator gallery. Sometimes, the latest thing isn't as "good" (in the kid's opinion) as the one that's already up there, so the new piece goes into a box with all the previous masterpieces.

I believe that people should create whatever comes to them. Whatever it is you like to do, whether it's visual, musical, verbal or written, YOU are the person to whom that inspiration came, and no one else will do exactly what you do. Preschool children know this and many of them create endlessly, beaming with joy as their latest work goes up on the refrigerator door.

Years later, we look back on our early work and wonder what made us think it was so great. "Look how skewed that guy's face is! I couldn't draw trees! These rocks look like lumps of mud! Why, oh, why does every horse look like some sort of mutant dog? Why do all my dogs look like mutant dogs??" If it's a piece of music, we might cringe at a clunky chord progression, or that corny ending. We might roll our eyes at the maudlin ramblings in our poetry that we thought were so "deep" at the time.

I know I have. When I was in junior high and high school I ruthlessly disposed of any scrap of artwork that was not up to standard. But my attitude is different now. I still wish I had those early acrylic paintings on which I worked so hard, even though I was so disappointed with the results.

Somehow, a few drawings--like the one at the beginning of this post--remained with me, and I scanned them in before we moved to Taiwan. They're irreplaceable. Were they great art? Maybe not, but they were expressions from a unique individual who was doing his best at that particular stage in his life, even though it didn't come out exactly right.

Some pieces go on the refrigerator door. Maybe a few (like "Alishan National Park," left) might get juried into a Pastel Society show at a museum and hang alongside some fantastic art, just down the hall from classics by Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran. All of them are worth doing, and worth sharing with whomever can appreciate them. Sometimes that's just your parents. Sometimes, it's just yourself. Sometimes it's people you never knew in places you've never been.

I'm lucky to have the technology to make an almost endless "refrigerator door" in this blog. I fully intend to make the most of it. That's what my "Picture of the Day" is all about.

Yeah, but what does all this have to do with Jimmy Stewart? He's the current masterpiece on my refrigerator door. Sure, I think I skewed his jaw a little, and for some reason, I seem to have trouble drawing any eye that's on the left hand side of the page. But here he is, just as I drew him. I'm glad I did.