I Asked an Artist Why She Paints

At breakfast this morning, I sat down next to a woman I had seen but never talked to before. She is an artist, as it turns out, so I asked her why she paints...

"I like to look at things... you know... for a while..." she answered me. "What do you mean, can you say more?"

"Well... I don't know if I can... but, you know, when you slow own, and really really look at things, sometimes you see things you didn't notice before," she continued. "Hmm... tell me more..." I said.

As we continued to talk, I did begin to understand, though I too don't know if I can put it words, and I imagine that I see different things in this slowing down than my artist friend. The artist and I began to reflect: what would the world be like if we all slowed down to look at things more. I asked, "Do you know if there is a way to teach this to children? Can we teach them this so that they don't get lost in the chaos-pace of the adult world as much?" "Well, no, we don't need to teach kids, they do it automatically, we just need to not un-teach them and give them the time and freedom to really sit and listen" answered my friend.

I'm not sure I agree with her because I'm not sure if the first graders that I taught at Sunday school last year knew how to do this. But, perhaps, even they were already un-taught what comes most natural to human being.

So I asked for any suggestions for things to read by people who have thought about this before. I'm curious - what do you think? And do you have suggestions for things to read and explore?

I have two things to share. One, an article by Matisse on "Looking at Life with the eyes of a child" http://books.google.com/books?id=xm-4k5Xs9DcC&pg=PA217&lpg=PA217&dq=matisse+looking+at+life+with+the+eyes+of+a+child&source=bl&ots=xgPXyHik8k&sig=Fu7nVNe7VYobFT2d8vmaselubuE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=L-TnUdKSOvSt4APztIDoBw&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA

Two, http://www.amazon.com/Other-Way-Listen-Byrd-Baylor/dp/0689810539/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374153976&sr=1-1&keywords=The+other+way+to+listen