Timothy's story

There was once a boy named Timothy who lived in a country far away.  From an early age, his parents wanted him to be a famous painter.  And indeed from an early age, Timothy showed a remarkable talent for painting.  In fact, when Timothy was only five, his parents searched and found a well-respected artist to help him hone his craft.

Every week, Timothy met with his art teacher.  Within a few months, he had all the fundamentals of painting down pat.  He knew all the brush strokes, how to make edges, and how to mix paint. 

One day, Timothy walked into the study and saw that his teacher had positioned a famous painting on an easel.  Timothy gasped at its beauty and the brilliance of the artist that painted it.  When he asked his teacher why the painting was there, his teacher informed him that he was about to start learning to paint the same painting himself.

“How can I do that? I am not a famous painter.  How can you expect me to paint like one?”  Timothy poured out questions to his teacher.

She patiently explained that the best way to learn to paint like a great artist is to imitate them.  “Practice each brush stroke and some day you will be able to paint this picture just as well,” she said.

At first, Timothy’s attempts at painting the picture failed miserably.  But over time, his skill grew.  After a few years of practice, he was able to imitate the famous painting so well that only a trained expert could spot which painting was Timothy’s and which was the original.

Once Timothy could imitate that picture almost exactly, his teacher moved him on to other masterpieces.  Timothy learned to conquer them all.  In fact, by the time he had reached adulthood, he knew how to duplicate over 20 famous paintings.

By that time, Timothy’s skill as a painter began to be known throughout the country.  And on one day, someone from a large church called.

“Timothy, we want to build a new church building.  We want it to be the finest in the country and we want it to be filled with incredible art.  The ceiling will be one gigantic painting and we want you to be the artist.”

Timothy got excited.  “That’s wonderful,” he exclaimed.  “Let me get you a list of the great masterpieces in my repertoire that I can paint on your ceiling.”  He began naming the great artists and paintings that he had mastered.

There was silence for a second on the other end of the phone.  Then the church administrator said, “Timothy, we don’t want an imitation of a great painting on our ceiling.  We want one of your original works.”

“Why would you want that? Don’t you know that the paintings in my repertoire are the greatest paintings ever painted by the greatest artists that ever lived?  I cannot paint better than those artists!  It would be an insult to them to pretend that I can.”

When the church administrator saw that Timothy would not change his mind, he politely ended the call.  And Timothy went back to that day’s task of picking out another famous painting that he wanted to learn to reproduce.

A little while later, a neighbor called.  “Timothy, our daughter is turning sixteen and we would like to paint her portrait.  We have heard that you are a great artist.  Will you do the portrait?”

Timothy politely declined.  “I’m sorry but I want to paint only the best paintings possible so I need to keep imitating the great paintings of history.  And besides, I have never bothered to learn how to paint original portraits.”

Selling his reproductions of great paintings supported Timothy for a few years.  But Timothy began to wonder why his finances were always so tight.  The surprising thing to him was that some artists who were painting original paintings seemed to be doing very well even though the quality was not up to par with Timothy’s standards.   In fact, some of the painters were getting quite rich.

“People who waste their money on that junk are getting what they deserve,” Timothy sneered.  “Our country is full of Philistines who don’t know what real art is.”

As sales continued to slow, Timothy found more time on his hands.  He even found time to join an organization dedicated to the goal of preserving the original artists’ intent when painting reproductions.  The organization was quite successful.  In many cases, they were able identify some artists who took the liberty of trying to improve on the original masterpieces when they reproduced them.  As Timothy put it to one artist, “If you are going to paint these paintings, you are arrogant if you think you know how to paint them better than the original artist.”

One day, Timothy’s banker called and asked for a meeting.  The banker looked worried. “Timothy, I don’t know what to do.  Your account is overdrawn and you have no money coming in.  We cannot continue this way.  You are going to have to find a way to earn a living.”

“You do realize,” he went on, “that many other artists are in your position.  They know how to paint reproductions but they either don’t know how or refuse to paint originals.  And they are not poor.  They know how to make a living.”

“How do they do it?” Timothy asked. 

“It’s simple really,” said the banker.  “They become art teachers and teach other people how to reproduce great paintings. Many of our country’s art teachers do not paint originals but they are experts at reproducing masterpieces.”

“But I want to paint, not teach!” Timothy exclaimed.  “And my paintings are imitations of the finest art ever.”

The banker sighed. “That may well be, but no one wants those paintings.  They want current, original paintings even if you don’t think they are any good.”

Timothy reluctantly agreed and that is how he became an art teacher.  For the rest of his life, he trained numerous young painters so that they could make imitations of great paintings too.  Those that stuck with it eventually became art teachers themselves.

And so it goes until this day.