Virtuoso Visual Artistry

When I watch these videos of Boubou Dakar, an artist from Senegal, I am astounded. Who wouldn't be?

What he does with paint depends (or seems to depend) on an inborn way of seeing (he often paints upside-down) and replicating what he sees. It is a specific talent that is not, in my mind, that far removed from musicians who can hear a complicated polyphonic piece and replicate it faithfully, either by writing it down or by playing it on the piano (or maybe both). Glazunov, Shostakovich, Mozart, and my brother Marshall come to mind.

I marvel while watching videos of super realist artists like Devon Rodriguez, and wonder if his work comes as a result of a lot of careful study, or if it comes from a way of seeing and a hard-wired connection between his eye and his hand. And what skill set makes it possible for a young person like Youngsung Kim paint photographically in oils the way he does?

My great uncle Aaron Bohrod spent a great deal of time (I believe it was a decade) doing still life paintings, but he also worked in various other styles throughout his life (as you can see here). Uncle Aaron worked as a commercial artist as well as a "fine artist," and was extremely prolific. His work is evocative, expressive, witty, and is often filled with visual puns. I wonder what he would have made of these young artists and of their work. I wonder if these young men, who are already "internet famous" will have the room to grow as artists and explore the emotional nature of artistic creativity that goes beyond faithful representation.