Smitten
I’ve laid down less money for cars than the amount I dropped for my first computer. The Apple IIe was the latest model, but the IIc looked sexier.
Apple IIc & me
I took the IIc home and closed myself off in my den to get acquainted with the future. Naturally, I did what most people were doing with computers in 1978? I began to write code. I was blown away when I programmed a triangle to move across the dark monitor screen. Eventually I realized that Apple wasn’t made just for geeks, but equally for artists. With the right floppy disk, I could paint pictures. I was smitten.
I’ve been smitten with Apple products since that first encounter in 1978. The Apple IIc was merely an artist tool in its infancy. Yet I knew that whoever came up with that idea would one day make a computer that would fit as comfortably in the my studio as did my paint brushes and easel.
Apple evolved quickly. Today, 30+ years beyond that IIc, Apple devices are more my easel than the wooden ones in my studio.
The Leader
What inspires me is not technology, but it’s ability to free creativity. The devices that came out of Apple rivaled many of their competitors for their ability to compute. But it stood alone as a tool with which imaginative people give birth to new ideas. Others would follow, but Apple would lead.
Apple is less a product and more a people. Steve Jobs couldn’t code like Woz, nor could he design like Ive. It took an army of very smart and creative people to make magic in Cupertino, but it took one man to lead them.
Jobs was like a white hat sorcerer in Disney’s Fantasia. Jobs was like a Johnny Appleseed sewing to the future. Jobs was like the Lion King, separated from the pride for a season, but returning to rule. Jobs was like them yet unlike any. He was himself.
Some of us are carving our path in stone that will never be erased. Generations to come can find their direction through us, then branch out on their own.
Thanks Mr. Jobs for giving us tools to help free our creativity. More importantly, thanks for being an example of how to make our own way. Finally, thanks for being an artist.
