Our misguided art education

7 May 2011 by 1 Comment

I was going through my drafts this morning, trying to decide if there were any worth posting, and found this one. It’s appropriate mainly because my wife just gave me the book that historian and critic Daniel Seidell comments on for Comment magazine:

There are few cultural practices more misunderstood and misinterpreted than art. The misunderstanding starts in grade school art classes and is affirmed every step of the way through adulthood. We are taught that art is fun, it is whatever you want it to be, anyone can do it if they really wanted to, and that it expresses your individuality and creativity. What is more, we also learn that professional artists are quirky creative types that don’t quite “fit in” with the rest of us. We are also taught that art is a nice decoration to have around but thoroughly unnecessary for daily life. Yet we are also told that “the arts” are important for our local communities. And, perhaps most problematically of all, we are told that even though we don’t know much about art, we know good art when we see it.

This is a fantastic synopsis that, in essence, summarizes a number of things said on this blog over the past few years. Read Seidell’s article in its entirety, a review of Sarah Thornton’s Seven Days in the Art World, via this link.

Filed under Art, Art education, Criticism

Just for fun on Friday

22 April 2011 by 1 Comment

A pre-Easter resurrection of Just for fun on Friday. First, Eske Rex’s fascinating drawing machine.



I’d like one of the drawings for my own home.

And secondly, a call to anyone in the London area to visit The Idler Academy, a bookshop, café and centre of learning in West London. The Idler attempts to cultivate a spirit of leisure through learning. “In Ancient Greece, the word which turned into our word for school, scholee, originally meant ‘leisure’. Education was a pleasure . . . “

Filed under Art, Art education, Drawing

Yes, I’m still thinking about the artist retreat

27 March 2011 by Leave a Comment

As much as I can with the new job I’m still trying to keep the goal of an artist retreat in front of us. Last week I learned about a property in eastern Nebraska that is going to come on the market soon, an old farmstead, that could be perfect for our idea. I doubt we’ll have the ability to move on this particular property, but this morning I was thinking a little bit about how such a farmstead could be converted for the retreat and sketched the following.

Filed under Art and faith, Art and Missions, Art education, Christian art retreat

On grad school in the humanities

6 November 2010 by Leave a Comment

Via Sarah Irani.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obTNwPJvOI8]

Filed under Art education, MFA

Let your squares be squares

13 July 2010 by Leave a Comment

Julie Rozman, an architect-slash-ceramics blogger I’ve followed for a few years now, posted some images of her work for sale. She’s moving from Chicago to Urbana to study ceramics, and one of her sets of work reminded me of a post I’ve been thinking about for a while.

A long while, actually. Probably since I graduated from college almost ten years ago now.

Julie's sculpture does not forget it's roots.

In my architecture classes, in my graphic design classes and some of the time in my ceramics classes I watched aspiring artists and designers, myself included, forget the basics of design. We’d go after an assignment with passion, with dreams of being featured on the front cover of Architectural Digest, and forget that there are certain building blocks to every visual and spatial solution. They were overthinking the problem.

I suppose this is a symptom of the genius mentality, the drive for stardom usurping the desire to make useful and beautiful contributions to our surrounding environments.

Filed under Aesthetics, Affluenza, Architecture, Art, Art education, Artist as genius, Basis for designing well, Beauty, Ceramics, Design, Modern culture

Should artists learn a trade?

6 February 2010 by 4 Comments

Been pretty quiet the past few weeks here on the blog eh?

Bloggy buddy and painter Jim Janknegt has suggested in the past that art students should be taught a trade while earning their degree. I like this idea. It makes use of artists’ natural ability to work with their hands while acknowledging how difficult it is to make a living as a painter or sculptor, especially right out of college. Even if the overly idealistic students don’t want to acknowledge the fact. Furthermore, trades generally pay more than other jobs aspiring artists often end up in. And we all like a little more in the paychecks.

The absence on the blog is thanks to a new full time job. I’m working in a trade again. I have a little bit of experience in quite a few different trades: Landscaping, offset printing, woodworking, a variety of building trades including framing, wiring and painting. My new gig is with a painter, someone I actually helped out for a couple of summers while in college.

I’m also still working for M-DAT. Between the two I have very little time left in a day. The plan at this point is to focus intently on my sculpture on the weekends. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how soon I can build myself a soda kiln, and if I can make it somewhat portable. I don’t need a large one, and I already have some salvaged brick that can help out.

A friend recently counted the friends he has who are currently without jobs, and they numbered ten. So, regardless, I’m grateful for the work.

Filed under Art, Art education, Business of art, Ceramics

How to become a [magical] potter

24 August 2009 by 1 Comment

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLPk5va1ygg&feature=player_embedded]

Via the Slipcast blog, where Matthew Katz says of the video “I have some questions, but for now I am just going to assume that apparently the world views ceramicists as friendly, mystical monsters.”

Filed under Art, Art education, Ceramics, Craft

Value of college degree overrated

21 August 2009 by 5 Comments

When I met an old childhood acquaintance in a store a few weeks ago who is on her way to college this weekend I implored her not to graduate. Real life, so to speak, responsibility simply sucks. Stay in school I told her!

Indeed, my own college experience was such that I’ve always wanted to go back. Real life isn’t all that bad, except for the constant bills in the mailbox. And the aging, although the wisdom that comes with age is almost worth the body falling apart bit. But my years at the university were good times, and that without ever once getting drunk or high.

However, I’ve wondered about the value of my degree in the past five years or so. Is college really all that? The impression me and my fellow high school students were given back in the early 90s was that it is all that. If you’re gonna be a somebody you gotta go to a four-year school.

I don’t really believe that anymore, and neither does John Stossel.

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl_24uSPedM&feature=player_embedded]

I didn’t go to college just so I could earn more money than a high school grad, which seems to be the focus of this video. I trained my eye on the university because I really wanted to be an architect, and there was no way to become an architect if you didn’t have degree. Of course, I changed my major two years in, but that’s another story for another time.

From time to time I wonder what I would have done if I hadn’t attended the university. A two-year school seems like a good option. In fact, people I knew at Southeast Community College were getting a better education than I was in graphic design, and I could studied ceramics there as well. I’ve also thought of owning rentals. A lot of people don’t have the right temperament to do this well (including our landlord down in Arkansas from four years back), but I believe I do, and it seemed like a way to make a good living. And maybe I’d be building furniture.

Other than pointing out our cultural blindness with respect to four-year degrees, I like how Stossel’s spot affirms the value of working with your hands, something The Aesthetic Elevator is all about.

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

— I Thess 4:11

Filed under Architecture, Handmade, MFA, Modern culture, Personal reflection

Artist retreat/colony

17 August 2009 by 5 Comments

This morning I collected my past ponderings on a faith-based artist colony and listed them on a page called Artist retreat.

This is probably only interesting to a certain few regular readers, but for those who do take the time to glance at the listing let me ask for some feedback. One of the things I haven’t nailed down yet is whether or not there is actually a felt need among both artists and mission organizations for such a venture. If you have any insight along these lines, please leave a comment on this post or on the aforementioned page.

Filed under Art, Art and faith, Art and Missions, Art education, Christian art retreat, Christianity

Pete Pinnell on fine art that functions

26 June 2009 by 1 Comment

Pete Pinnell was one of my professors at the University of Nebraska, one of three very strong individuals in a fantastic ceramics program. The following video (external link) is a stellar talk about fine art and function.

Pete Pinnell on cups

Pete is a very good speaker and draws a number of simple but very powerful metaphors as he discusses cups, drinking vessels, in this video. Below I’ve paraphrased some of the portions that really caught my attention:

    Art acknowledges and actually talks about life, but there is one great taboo still in the art world, and that is that art still does not take part in life. Art thinks about life, but it does so from the role of the critic, from the observer, from the outsider. I like to joke that art will peek in our windows and rummage through our closets but it won’t sit down at the dinner table with us.

    The fine arts world has chosen to forgo touch, but it’s a very powerful means of human expression.

    Does having to deal with function limit creativity?

    A little bit of dissonance is really required to have something that will hold our attention for a longer period of time.

For the most part I think he hits the nail squarely on the head, but I’d love to hear other’s responses to this 30 minute talk.

Filed under Art, Art education, Art for art's sake, Art vs Craft, Ceramics, Craft, Handmade

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