Thoughts on Teaching Art Appreciation and History

I’ve been teaching art appreciation and art history for over twenty years and I must admit I never get tired of the material. Art has so much incredible emotional and intellectual depth to it - the desire to communicate is an integral part of the human condition since those first prehistoric people began expressing themselves with earth minerals, bits of charcoal and pigments on the walls of the caves of France. This is a subject I am deeply passionate about. It seems I learn something new about art and its amazing history every semester I teach it. In fact, I learn a great deal from my students (in my online courses across the state) who bring so much new and exciting information to our discussion boards.

The one thing we as students of art history must notice as we research the various periods and styles of art. ART is a MIRROR of society and it reflects the issues, concerns, fears, hopes, beliefs, superstitions and agendas of every period in history throughout the world back at us viewing it today.

It is so much more than for decoration. Developing a deeper awareness and understanding of art through the ages gives us insight into the actual history of civilization before the non-objective and abstract art twentieth century because art is essentially a visual journey through time.

There is so much more to art (painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, etc.) than initially meets the eye, and without an understanding of the visual language and the historical context of any given art work we as viewers cannot truly extract all the information (content) out of the work.

Rococo - Neoclassical Art

What continues to fascinate me is how the styles of art change EVOLVE from period to period and region to region. It is as if one art style is responding and reacting to the previous one. Rococo art to Neoclassical is a great example of this powerful reaction of one art style to another

I believe that having a broader understanding and appreciation of art enriches and enhances our lives. To be able to view a great work of art and glean all the intellectual, emotional and cultural content out of it is an exciting and fulfilling experience. It makes a visit to a museum an exciting adventure and unique learning experience rather than a boring stroll through vast galleries of unfamiliar pictures and statues.

Art is NOT just for the rich. It’s NOT just for intellectuals and the elite. Art is for EVERYONE and it only takes a little bit of knowledge, insight and background to truly understand, appreciate and enjoy all types of art from purely representational to the totally abstract.

What is Art?

Some thoughts on what ART is and its incredibly fluid and evolving definition. Just posted this to my online Art Appreciation Classes. Yes I know I am a bit crazzzy.

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Thoughts on ArT

You don’t truly realize the incredible talent and skill that goes into painting and making good art in general until you have tried to paint, draw, sculpt or even compose a really good photograph. There is so much that goes into making highly expressive, dynamic and engaging art. I have picked up the my paint brushes after a year break due to the demands of my teaching and distance learning jobs and I must admit, at first I was very frustrated trying to get back to where I left off last year. I am not a representational painter by no means, although I am now trying to incorporate external references (subject matter) into my work unlike the Jackson Pollockesque non-objective art I make in Graduate school and beyond.

Take a moment and truly scrutinize a Van Gogh, Kandinski or Gauguin painting. Your first impression may be that these artists just quickly dashed some paint onto the canvas. Now…study them again, look at them hard and long and you will begin to realize that you can’t replicate their work. Van Gogh and Gauguin were putting their hearts and souls into their paintings and filtering external reality through their highly sensitive, intensely aware and empathetic sensibilities. Not everyone can do this, in fact…most people can’t.

Making good art, viable art, dynamic art, powerful art, expressive art ArT that reaches into your heart, mind and soul and grabs YOU and shakes You up is really hard to do. This is what frustrates me the most, because I understand the theory behind art, have studied and taught about all the great artists through history, the visual language and appreciate what all the great artists through history were trying to accomplish and yet…here I am with me easels in my kitchen making this feeble attempt to make a painting that expresses what I feel about the subject that I am translating to the viewers of my work.

Jackson Pollock Lavender Mist 

I am so much better at doing this through my photography, BUT painting is a whole different creative approach. You MUST be true to yourself as an artist and when you are working through the various challenges that confront you when painting or trying to harness and communicate through any creative medium, it is important to remember and be aware that none of the great artists in history had it easy and it took real blood, sweat, tears and GUTS to produce those great works of art that we all appreciate and cherish. Making art takes courage…it takes dedication…it takes perseverance and you (the artist) must be willing to take risks every time you pick up a camera, paint brush, pencil or put your hands in wet clay. Nobody said making art was easy and most artists don’t sell much if any work, they don’t get any recognition in their lifetime as well - you make art because you have to - you are driven to - you get depressed when your NOT making art, your not thinking about making art and now after teaching for 25 years it is time to redirect that creative energy into making some ART. I don’t have any idea how good it will be, BUT what enriches me - what keeps me going is the process, the act itself of making art because I really don’t care who likes it, who wants to buy it and if I get recognition for it - I make it because I have to - it is that simple.

Van Gogh is me hero so read Lust for Life and you will understand and “get” me and the issues I am addressing. Lust for Life was the best damn book I ever read next to Agony and the Ecstasy about the life of Michelangelo and On Photography by Susan SonTag.

Anybody can be an artist or writer…you just have to begin the creative journey - find a medium that feels comfortable to you and begin expressing yourself through it.

The Creative Process

The Photo of Atlantic Beach Pier

No matter what you do for a living I believe creativity and innovation are important factors in how much we as human beings enjoy and are sustained (enriched) by the endeavors we pursue. Succeeding in the global (technological) economy demands constant innovation and creativity. This is becoming more and more evident as economies are getting more and more dependent upon each other and so much business is conducted over the internet. We don’t even know the types of jobs that are going to be out “there” in ten years - information and knowledge are growing at such a rapid pace. As I have mentioned before in my various blog entries…the Industrial Revolution is over and so is the Information Age and as many techno Guru’s like Dan Pink are predicting we are now living in the Creative Age and the people who are going to succeed in this new age are going to be the highly creative, right brained entrepreneurial types.

My Translation in Paint

With that said…I’m really glad I’m painting again. Painting forces my creative spirit to emerge from the depths of my being. I’ve learned so much over the past 20+ years teaching Art History and Photography and now I am attempting to incorporate my knowledge of the theory and design elements of art and translate them into my own art ork. Granted…I’ve been painting and creating mixed media works for many years, but never have truly practiced my painting craft like I do teaching and photography because of the amount of time it takes to get really proficient. I had a major creative breakthrough yesterday because it finally dawned on me that I do NOT have to paint external reality in a purely didactic representational manner. While I was taking a painting class last year this is what I focused on because I wanted to learn how to paint what I saw in front of me and that was a good thing as I climbed the learning curve of mixing paints and palette management, but now that I have some of the basics down it is time to synthesize my personal sensibility as an artist (creative person) with those basic painting skills and create a style that is all my own. This painting of the Atlantic Beach Pier at Sunset is the first time I’ve been able to meld the new knowledge with my personal (highly expressive) style. I’m not there yet by no means, but I at least know what direction to take with my painting. Last night it occurred to me that it takes personal courage and confidence to paint and I do believe this - that is to paint from your heart and soul and not try to paint like someone else.

Paintin AgaiN!

I’m enjoying a little down time hear at Easter. School is out for a few days and I’m taking it easy…reading, working in the yard and getting back to my painting in preparation for my trip to Sicily to visit Andei and participate in an landscape painting workshop with an old artist friend Michael Untiedt who I met in Ireland a few years back.

Its taking me awhile to get back in the groove of mixing and applying paint. It has been almost a year since I took the painting class with Jason Smith. It is slowly coming back to me and at this point I’m just trying to tap into my expressive personal style and translate what I see onto the canvas.

I like to use the landscape (my backyard at the moment) as a point of departure for an impressionistic, slightly abstract composition. Check out my new catagory to the Blog - My ArT for some of the mixed media pieces I created in the past year.

The painting is very therapuetic for me - very much like working in the yard - I lose all sense of time when I paint - it literally takes me to a different place - very much like contemplative prayer.

Van Gogh, Giotto and Kandinski are a few of my very favorite artists. Van Gogh for his highly expressive and passionate approach to painting, Giotto for his naturalism and the great non-objective painter Kandinski for his intuitive sense of color, form and his highly conceptual works.

Van Gogh said, “I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God’s help I shall succeed.”
That sums up in one sentence where I am at this point in time.

ok…back to the painting.