Right-Brained All The Way

"Above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed. I was here. I was hungry. I was defeated. I was happy. I was sad. I was in love. I was afraid. I was hopeful. I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that's why I made works of art." -Felix Gonzalez-Torres

I have this child. This creative, artistic, right-brained child. She says all of the time, "I am completely right-brained. You could literally cut the left side of my brain out of my head, and I would be just fine."

I was looking through a folder in our computer. These are all of Jessica's pictures, taken and collected exclusively by herself. I don't need to say much. I think the pictures tell a beautiful story about who this amazing young woman is and what she is trying to become. 

This is her drawing. This drawing won an honorable mention in the district art fair when she was in the ninth grade. She only discovered recently that the photo she used as her model for this drawing contained the hands of none other than her favorite cellist, Rostropovich. She was thrilled at the discovery.

She made me take this picture of her in front of a painting of this, her favorite cellist. She fell in love with this painting at the violin shop when we were picking out her new cello. She named this new cello Antonio, but he is most often referred to as "Her Baby".

And here is Rostropovich in person.

And here sits Jessica, carefully examining his every musical move on Youtube while following along with her music. She plays her cello with absolute artistry. I believe this is because she intensely studies the masters. 

Silly musician humor.

Her cello bridge, sporting a violin mute. Once again, only a string player would find this amusing.

She went for a walk in the rain a few Sundays ago. Notice the earbud hanging out of her ear. This girl never walks through life unaccompanied. Beethoven, and Saint-Saens, and Dvorak, and Vivaldi tend to be her constant companions.

Another old bald cellist idol of hers. No Justin Bieber at our house...only old dead bald cellists with accents. This one is luckily still living. She is currently reading Janos Starker's Autobiography and loves his writing style. She was thrilled on Valentine's Day when we surprised her with Bach's Cello Suites edited by this guy. She has carefully watched every famous cellist play these suites and, after careful scrutiny, has decided that Mr. Starker plays them best. 

This must be the comments from her recent solo and ensemble performance on the school level. Because she received a superior rating on the school level, she went on to compete at the district level yesterday. Her private teacher was her adjudicator. We're trying to decide whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. She'll find out today at her lesson. 

I don't know where she found this quote, but it pretty much defines what she believes to be one of her callings in life.

And this is one of her only non-bald, non-old, non-male cellist idols. Jacqueline Du Pre was shaping up to be the first great female cellist, when she died young and tragically of colitis back in the 60's or 70's. 

I think Jessica feels a certain connection to this young beautiful musician.

This is Jessica's most recent drawing. One of the great tragedies of this grueling school year, is that she has had little time to draw. I admit, I miss seeing her sprawled out under a tree, with her sketchbook, earbuds in place, listening to Piatogorsky play Dvorak's Cello Concerto as she draws. We are anticipating summer here at the Watson house.

This seems to be her mantra. I'll nag Jessica for the tenth time to go work on her pre-calculus, and a few minutes later, I'll hear her tuning her cello. That sneaky girl! What am I going to do, tell her to "Quit practicing your cello, and go do your math!" Asking this child to quit using her right brain and to give her left brain some attention by doing some math problems is like asking her to leave Paris to go visit Nevada. She has no desire. The dreariness of the notion is too much for her.

But who needs math when you have music, and literature, and drawing, and painting, and photography, and art in all its splendid varieties? Who Indeed. There are plenty of people out there to work logarithms, you just go on creating beautiful music, writing lovely prose, and displaying this beautiful world in your drawings and photos. Let the left-brainers make the nice living, you keep on making this nice life worth living.