Hindsight, Or Something Like That

One of the first of my pieces of art I ever rescued from a drawer and framed is a lino print of Robert Plant (dreamy sigh) from the Led Zeppelin 1973 concert at Madison Square Gardens that's used in most of their well known videos and their movie "The Song Remains The Same."

I watched the movie again this weekend and was inspired by the lighting and the tones (and the charisma!) to paint Robert Plant all over again.  I was looking at the abstract painting I did and chuckling at the fact that I'd done, without realizing it, a piece from the same video right out of high school.

And then I looked at the lino print, and realized I haven't done one in years.  Have a vague remembrance of how to do it but... at this point, could not replicate what I did then.  That's what happens when you don't keep up at a skill... it doesn't stick around.  Or something.

Which lead me to two thoughts.  One... I wish I had kept up with my art all these years.  All through having jobs and working through university and having boyfriends and all the life stuff that happens, I wish I'd kept up with it.  (Sure, I could even say I wish I'd done it as a career, but we'll leave that one for now.)

And, two... I wish I could go back to high school.  NEVER before in my life have I ever wished this.  I would not wish those insecurities or acne or social ... upsets on anyone, but man oh man do I ever wish I could go back and take all the courses I wanted to take.  The photography class I didn't have room for.  The auto mechanics, woodwork, metal shop classes.  To take my 2-D and 3-D classes again.  TO REMEMBER.  To have free (to me) access to the materials and the learning and the .... all of it.  I want to go back and have the time and space to do all those courses I "couldn't" do because I "had" to take the courses to get into university to do.... something.  (I had no idea at the time.  I had no idea four years and a degree later, either.)

I know, I should look into community college classes, and I might, really.  But there's something about thinking back to high school and wishing I had known how much I'd want those "other" courses, and how little adult me would want to remember about the courses I did take.

Perhaps not everyone feels this way about high school.  Maybe I just missed the mark, or didn't quite know myself.  Not that I disliked the Sciences and all (Math was not my favourite, ugh) and the English and French (I was an Immersion student, it took up a lot of course times) and.... whatever else I took (I was hyper aware of keeping all my possible university options open so covered all the possible acceptance standards, so I never felt like I could do the "fun" stuff.  Man do I wish I could go back and tell myself to ONLY do the fun stuff.)

But, yeah.  First time ever in my life I've wanted to go back to high school.  Just for the ability to get free education and classes and training and material in the stuff I wish I knew more about.

(I wonder if I could time travel, if high school me would even listen to... future now me?)