There is an interesting phenomenon one can witness in nearly any art museum in the world. Hover near a Caravaggio, for instance, and you'll overhear expressions of awe. But view a few visitors' reactions to, say, Malevich's Black Square, and they will undoubtedly include, "This is art? I could do that."
Geometric precision aside, one glance inside an art history book would prove that until Malevich, no one did do that. The Modern movement has admittedly opened the floodgates wide for some questionable art, but artists who were unafraid to present a new take on paint or shape can hardly be included among them. In one of my favorite stories, an art critic named John Ruskin took artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler to task in the late nineteenth century for attempting to sell what he deemed to be an unfinished painting. Whistler sued for libel, and won no more than a farthing for damages, which he affixed to his jacket and wore proudly for the rest of his life. He is just one of many pioneers who argued for "Art for Art's Sake" and pushed the medium forward past still lifes and portraiture.
Most of us do not aspire to be Bill Gates or LeBron James or Azzedine Alaia. We know that such raw, incredible talent is out of our reach. But deep inside each one of us, there is an original dream. We do not keep it under wraps or fear to pursue it because it seems too grand to accomplish; on the contrary, we are afraid it is too simple, too small. And so we decide it doesn't even deserve to see the light of day. But one never knows what is going to change the world. Take it from Yves Saint Laurent: "I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes."
So you see, darlings, even the great ones admire the little dreamers that could. The question is not who are you to think you can pull it off, it is who are you not to try? Be a square. Propel your simple perfection out into the world. Even if someone else claims they could have done it, the point is they never dared to.
