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Posted on 11/27/2025 2:22:50 PM
By Donald Fox
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Life Raft oil on canvas 30" x 40"
The following, slightly edited, came from notes written in a small sketchbook sometime in August of 2017, just over eight years ago. I was rummaging today through old sketchbooks and journals (sometimes these also contain impromptu drawings) to find a series of colored pencil drawings from just a few years back. I’m meeting next week with a friend who lives on her family’s homestead in the countryside northwest of Houston. We will be doing drawing together so she can improve her understanding and skills, and I want to show her some samples of what I sometimes call controlled doodling. All she really needs, I think, is a bit of encouragement since she already has done a lot of her own doodling. I know she will appreciate this brief story below.
Zhang Guolau, also known as the bat spirit, was a mythological figure and one of the Eight Immortals in the Taoist pantheon. He was also said to be a real historical figure who lived sometime from the seventh to the eighth century. Among his legends he rode on a magical white mule for thousands of miles within a day. When the mule was not needed, Zhang commanded it to step onto a piece of paper where it transformed into a drawing of a mule. Zhang folded up the paper and carried it in his pocket until he again needed the mule on which he could ride.
A painter expresses his thoughts, his/her feelings, and his/her impressions about a person, place, or experience in his/her paintings. The painting is no more than colored marks that have been skillfully arranged on a surface to illustrate those thoughts or feelings. A viewer brings his/her experience to a painting even upon first viewing. To the perceptive viewer, the painting may speak about something other than person, place, or experience. It is potentially a window to another realm. The painting may hang on a wall within a room and appear to be a decoration, part of the décor, a framed spot of color and shape that echoes other colors and shapes within the room.
The painting may also be a portal that leads far beyond the walls of the room. It is the imagination of the painter connecting with the imagination of the viewer that makes the painting come to life. Whatever is portrayed now exists in a virtual realm, a magical realm, that transcends time, space, the confines of a frame, and the common materials from which it was made. It is a mute testament to human experience, and it is a white mule that can travel thousands of miles within a day.
Posted on 9/30/2019
By Donald Fox
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As I have been growing older, I like to think that in some ways I’m also growing wiser. Not one for particularly enjoying parties and gatherings, I also don’t see myself isolated somewhere waiting for sycophants or acolytes to find me. I am not and never have been a guru or a member of any particular party, communal or otherwise. The saying goes that the wise man knows that he doesn’t know, and if that’s the case, then maybe I have a little wisdom. At this stage of life, I should know something. All that experience, all that water under the bridge should count for something. All those squiggly lines, those scribbled words, and those erratic strokes must hold some clues to the nature of the universe – if nothing else, at least my universe. There should be a wealth of accumulated knowledge, but the trouble is in the remembering of it.
Now, when I stand in front of a blank canvas, I see the potential of hours lost in deep thought and fervent expression much like that bemused little boy who stared at the world of giants lumbering all around him, rushing this way and that, seemingly on purpose and eager to dispense their supposed wisdom on the path that he should take and scolding him when he rejected the rules that would make him one of them.
The blankness equals silence. The first and second and subsequent entries into that silence create a potential symphony, cacophonous at times, but a new order nevertheless that has everything and nothing to do with what has come before. It is a personal act of supreme selfishness that is for this self alone. Its highest purpose is to make a bridge to understanding, to create order from a consciousness riddled with disorder that is the plethora of information constantly beamed in this maybe-not-so-appropriately called information age, but in truth there has always been an abundance of input and its sources so vastly greater than the limited receiver that is any singular entity, i.e. the solitary ego.
The beauty of it may be in the choices made, the lines of inquiry followed, and discoveries encountered that could not have been predicted by the emptiness of its origin. Why and why not are basically the same question, for the result is usually an answer that leads to another question – the best answers, that is. Perhaps there is more than a little irony in that artists frequently and confidently use that oft-heard parental phrase “because I said so” in defense of their work.
Posted on 9/17/2019
By Donald Fox
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Color is a fascinating area of study, and artists in particular focus on the many nuances of color in order to enhance expression. Individual colors can have many meanings to humans, and sometimes colors will be interpreted differently by different cultures. We are usually influenced strongly by cultural beliefs, sometimes without realizing it. We assume something is true because that is what we always see or hear about it. With keen awareness, though, we may also make associations with colors (or other things) because of personal experience.
The color red, for example, is associated with fire, with warmth, with passion, with danger, with urgency, with emergency, with strength and with power. Exposure to significant red color can create physiological responses such as increased respiration and blood pressure. Cooler colors like blue or purple (even though this one contains red) typically have calming effects on the mind and the body. However, as anyone who has studied psychology can attest, a person can react negatively even to positive things if that person has been traumatized in some way. For that individual, a particular color (or other stimulus) associated with the trauma can conjure strong negative response, a form of classical conditioning. Blue might be stimulating or alarming to that person rather than calming.
Response to color, and especially the complexities of color within art works may be beyond the scope of the artist’s control. Even so, he or she will often utilize color as the main element to convey the sensory meaning of a work. The viewer then is tasked to interpret the work according to its given parameters. The artist’s and/or the viewer’s personal history relative to color may serve as an unpredictable influence in the aesthetic experience.
When noted artist, educator, and color theorist Joseph Albers said that color is relative, he meant specifically that color is always seen in relation to another color – a colored object is observed against a colored ground. The background will affect how the object is seen and vice-versa. A simple example is that a medium gray against a black ground will appear lighter than the same gray against a white ground. That gray will seem darker by comparison even though both are exactly the same gray color.
Add to this the complexities of individual psychological make-up and the human response to color is greatly expanded from a simple positive or negative response. The astute viewer will ask him or herself questions regarding personal response in order to more fully appreciate the experience relative to color (or shape or form or subject or… ). The response to color, then, and to art in general, is a continuous learning process and perhaps why so many have suggested that art is a mirror where we find ourselves colorfully reflected.
Posted on 6/21/2019 7:38:31 PM
By Donald Fox
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I’ve had a great many teachers in my life both formal and informal. Whether the lessons they taught were institutionalized (taught in a recognized, formal setting) or not no longer matters, though as an educator myself I see how the institutional format is mostly lauded within the larger culture but often dismissed by those outside of that formal culture as impractical and possibly subversive. Irony surrounds all of this, for we never know where true lessons arise until they do so. To learn a skill, however, we mostly think of following a regimen of learning that usually comes from trained experts, and depending on the skill or body of knowledge, the expert could be institutionally or experientially trained.
For several hundred years, artists typically became apprentices to master artists just as other craftsmen apprenticed to master craftsmen. The so-called trades still follow this process to some degree though there are now many schools that teach various trade crafts. Learning a skill in whatever setting can be a lengthy and arduous process, but the skill alone is not much value without the ability to problem solve, to think creatively, and to apply these along with the practice of the skill. For artists, this combination of applied skill and creative thinking is where meaningful, mature, and effective work springs forth.
Posted on 3/12/2019
By Donald Fox
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Night Window oil on canvas 24" x 36"
Just over a year ago I was contacted by Jim Wunderlich (see his LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-wunderlich-ascap-68414525) via my website about a potential collaboration utilizing an image of one of my paintings as the floorpiece/backdrop for a high school performance percussion group. As a longtime educator, I was intrigued by the opportunity to support creative expression by young students. After viewing a few videos of performances (link for past performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi8wO3iIlJQ ), I was enrolled in the project. Jim is a musical director and composer and provides music for several groups in different states, and though the performances don’t draw a huge audience compared to rock concerts, they are spectacular and engage students at their creative best.
Eventually, my painting Night Window was selected, and it became the stimulus for the Broken Arrow High School (from Broken Arrow, OK), a national award-winning group, performance of “Waiting for the Night” that includes music based on rock band Depeche Mode and classical composer Erik Satie along with poetry by Dylan Thomas (“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”). The show was performed last week in Indianapolis with future shows in Tulsa and the Dallas area. If the timing works, I hope to attend the latter. Seeing my 24” x 36” painting blown up to the size of a basketball court was a real trip. I look forward to future collaborations.
Set for "Waiting for the Night"
Broken Arrow, OK
Posted on 10/27/2017
By Donald Fox
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The German-American artist Hans Hoffman was a noted teacher in the United States after emigrating from Germany in early thirties. He has influenced several generations of artists worldwide as well as making a major impact on American abstract art in the forties, fifties, and sixties. Noted for his theory of “push and pull,” Hoffman suggested that the artist manipulated the picture plane by pushing colors and shapes into the picture surface and pulling them from that surface. This is similar to the idea that cool colors recede and warm colors advance to establish spatial relationships on a flat surface. Rather than being a rigid systematic approach to painting, however, he suggested that the painting process is more intuitive, but the push-pull idea is one of the artist’s main tools.
Another way of thinking about this is to contrast the idea with linear perspective, which creates the illusion of space by lines and shapes angled into the distance (edges of a road that appear to converge at the horizon, for example). Hoffman’s idea can create dynamism and tension with blocks of color since the color and size variation of the blocks also powerfully suggest space. Rather than angles and diagonals creating movement, tension, and space as in most Renaissance paintings, color and shape serve similar purposes. The first-glance apparent static quality of Hoffman’s colored rectangular compositions, often stacked like bricks on a wall, is offset by the dynamic rhythm and tension created by juxtaposition of warm and cool colored shapes.
One could also think of this idea as tension expressed in life and nature. Even though Hoffman worked abstractly and emphasized abstract or non-objective approach to painting, the visual ideas contained within compositions are largely derived from observation of nature and the world around us. Opposition or polarity underlies much life expression: life-death, soft-hard, warm-cool, light-dark, proximity-distance. Other art forms also draw on these contrasts. Tension and dramatic conflict fuel the literary arts or rhythm, intervals, and high-low pitch and volume in music. Contrasts can create conflict and discord, but they also can create interest and harmony.
Artists often find themselves experiencing push-pull in their own lives. What they do is not always recognized or valued by society at large. They sometimes are seen as outsiders, at odds with the mainstream, or as shirkers of responsibility (practicality). Visual artists may be pushed to create work that sells fitted to a particular market niche. In a sense, the artist is urged to conform to something socially and economically acceptable. We can easily see this at work in popular culture with respect to art (commercial and Fine Art), music (pop and classical), cinema (movies and film), theater (Broadway and drama), and writing (pop fiction and literature).
Sometimes there are successful crossovers – serious artists who become popular or popular ‘artists’ who do something serious – but more frequently we find artists misunderstood or unrecognized or outright vilified. There is always the possibility for this to change, which will largely be the result of better education. Major museums contribute with blockbuster exhibitions and community outreach. Public television produces spectacular educational, historical, and Fine art entertainment. Cable channels and streaming services like Netflix create original programming far superior to anything on network television. Hopefully this will be a continuing trend in spite of clueless and even repressive governmental interference. Push and pull is everyday drama.
Posted on 7/14/2017 7:27:58 PM
By Donald Fox
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Life is a serious game. We can say that it just happens. We come about from the interaction of our parents and sometimes believe that we have no choice in the matter. For example, I might say that I did not choose to be here. However, at some point in my life, I became conscious enough to make decisions and begin to believe that I do have a choice in the matter. I learn certain rules of behavior and make up others of my own. I have begun to play the game whether I think it is so or not.
There is a tendency to consider play as something frivolous. It is for children mostly, but adults take on more serious games to play like various sports or the more potentially impactful ones like psychological games. Aside from the big business aspect of professional sports, which for many is a means to recognition and wealth they otherwise would not have, play is still considered largely a pastime. Many forms of play are used for relaxation or to mentally, emotionally, or physically reduce stress and to escape the realities of life. Play, then, may be considered therapeutic. It is not simply a time waster but a positive factor in the game of life.
In the arts, especially in music, play is a key word, for musicians play music as they practice their artistic expression. Even those who only listen to music will play a record, a CD, or other device that gives access to a musical performance. The appreciation of the art form, music or otherwise, is in itself a form of play as the audience engages with the piece. This kind of engagement by many will be considered quite serious entertainment or activity that can lead to higher levels of consciousness, learning, and stimulation of individual creativity. The passive audience can become active creator – and this can play out in many different ways. The new creator can express inwardly for continued personal growth, can express outwardly by creating new artistic works, or can express both inwardly and outwardly in an ongoing interaction with other creators and with the world at large.
Play has many possibilities for any of us, and it becomes our choice how we may utilize play within our own lives. Artists often think of the serious creative work that they do as play in the lighter sense because it is pleasurable and totally absorbing. What they create, however, elevates the metaphorical play, the creative play, into meaningful experience for them as creators and for their audiences as receivers of the work. It is as though the art is an invitation to play on many levels at once. As always, art is a potentially multi-leveled experience, and a very great part of that experience is playful.
Posted on 6/1/2017
By Donald Fox
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One of the amazing things about the human mind – and there are many amazing attributes – is its ability to focus. Because of the enormous amount of sensory input the mind has to process, it is very easy for any one of us to be constantly distracted by this or that, whatever sensation may command the most attention. We can, however, train our minds to ignore the distractions and to focus on any particular task or thing we find most intriguing. Athletes work earnestly to focus on the game or physical activity for which they constantly train. They learn to use visualization techniques, meditation to quiet mind chatter, or other focusing techniques to zero in on what is there in the moment be it in the midst of a game, a training session, or strategy session. Concentration is often the key to success.
Students often tell me that they are good at multi-tasking. When I test them on that simply by asking what we talked about yesterday in class, inevitably they show poor results. They do honestly think that they can work on one assignment while listening to a lecture or to music or to some YouTube presentation, do well on the assignment and remember what was discussed in the lecture. Yet they also readily admit that they often have difficulty reading because they find that after a few pages they don’t remember what was on the first page or even what the main idea of the reading actually is. In short, they lack focus when they need it. Sure, most of them can focus on a computer game or follow along with their favorite song or send text messages quickly (though not always accurately). However, they simply haven’t learned how to focus when necessary as with reading or listening or other doing any other task that requires extended concentration.
We could discuss the influence of television, music, computers, or cell phones (or other electronic gadgets) for the short attention span as many experts have for a number of years now. We could show how studies indicate that multi-tasking actually reduces one’s ability to perform at peak levels. We could also demonstrate how athletes and other peak performers use their brains and the ability to focus as much or more as their physical prowess in the amazing feats they may perform when “in the zone.” Sometimes it is as simple as keeping one’s eye on the ball.
What is more important, though, is how to improve the ability (or activate that ability) to focus. The short answer is through repeated practice. Learning to do anything well, from running to playing basketball to reading to martial arts to painting – any of it and all of it improve through practice. Some activities naturally motivate us to practice, and we may not even think of what we are doing as practice while we do it. The more challenging tasks are those that require extra motivation to do them – for some people that might be exercising as an example. A partner, a coach, or someone else to keep us accountable and on track may be required. For the best results that motivation eventually needs to move from external to internal. Once that is tapped, it may be surprising how quickly that ability to focus strengthens and grows. Some professional motivators call it finding one’s passion, for the intrinsic motivation truly keeps one going because that (whatever it may be) is what the individual wants most to do. For those that want to paint, it is the act of painting that encourages more of the same. Focus comes from the act of painting just as it does through drawing. Yes, one is also learning a skill, but what makes that skill really work is the focus required to do it. As the saying goes – just do it!
Posted on 12/18/2016 6:27:00 PM
By Donald Fox
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Window Box
Art is one of those concepts that is difficult to define. Not everyone has an opinion about it, but many people do, artists and non-artists alike. Most might agree that art is some sort of creative work, an expressive act that may or may not result in some tangible object that is the manifestation of the creative energy. Most might also agree that art has no real purpose other than to be itself. It might be beautiful or not; it might make commentary about society, culture, or political regime – or not. It may be representational meaning that it resembles something, for example, a painted portrait or a figurative statue or a landscape or objects as in a still life. Skill may be evident in the making of the work, and that may be its strongest attribute, or there may be the obvious lack of skill in the work as in much so-called modern art, the emphasis being on whatever ideas are expressed in the work (ready-mades, found pieces, recycled works, or works made from scraps).
Serious art is rarely anonymous – the work is almost always tied to a specific artist or group of artists. Some art may gain importance by its authorship. Sometimes it is nearly impossible to separate the art from the artist, and in today’s marketplace the artist promotes him or herself as a brand which in turn promotes the art. Attribution is of primary importance in the realm of art history. Consequently, art is usually qualified by artist, period, place of origin, school or stylistic expression, many of the things that casual viewers will likely know less about. Museums will aid their audience by supplying identifying placards, contextual statements, lectures, docent tours, films, and other supplemental information. Typically they are teaching institutions as well as repositories.
Even as one builds a contextual and historical knowledge base, it becomes apparent that the definition of art must be expansive, inclusive, and flexible. This should not be surprising since we’re considering all the creative expression of humanity at large for as far back as we can find examples. People being people, however, there will always be biases and preferences. The educated art appreciator will be more tolerant of dislikes and certainly more intelligent when building a case for or against particular art, artists, styles, media, or whatever he or she feels the need to defend or critique. In fact, because of the diversity and complexity in artistic expression, it becomes important for the audience to be educated. To be otherwise is to discount a major portion of humanity’s contribution to the planet.
Posted on 11/12/2016 6:21:45 PM
By Donald Fox
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I started a portrait today, a double portrait actually, of a friend and colleague and her husband. Normally I don’t do portraits and certainly don’t seek them out, but from time to time someone will ask me to do one. If there is a particular challenge or aspect of interest, then I may concede and do the painting. Portraiture, however, is not my area of interest with painting. Still, as a visual problem to be resolved, the portrait is a most challenging one.
I’ve had students in the past who thought they could do portraits but did not realize the difference between a landscape and a portrait is vast especially when those students did not possess refined drawing skills. Many of them did not complete the process, and those who did either recognized the challenge exceeded their grasp but persevered anyway o relied heavily on me to help them through the drawing hurdles. Those students actively learned something. The others did not recognize that their results were lacking so pleased were they to have completed the undertaking. These few would not follow advice, in particular to do a lot more drawing, and effectively stalled their learning process by wasting time on something they couldn’t do well rather than spend that time doing work that would help them improve and move them more quickly to develop the observational and executional skills needed to successfully create a painted likeness of someone.
There is certainly nothing wrong with tackling a difficult project in particular if frame of mind is on learning and not simply creating. The process of learning to be an artist is a long one fraught with many challenges, detours, roadblocks, and setbacks. It takes dedication, patience, and perseverance in order to succeed. Most discover that the learning process is ongoing. Even experienced artists continue to learn, to experiment, and to challenge themselves throughout their career – the most successful ones, that is.
When I was a kid, I heard this advertising jingle – “half the fun of having feet is Red Goose Shoes” – and though I never had any Red Goose Shoes, the jingle stuck. Well, half the fun of being an artist is the continuation of practice and learning. If one finds no fun in these processes, then perhaps the artistic path is not the one to be on.
Posted on 10/21/2016 7:02:18 PM
By Donald Fox
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A recent posting from Edutopia, an email newsletter and online publication of the George Lucas Educational Foundation highlighted three reasons that the Arts are essential. First is that the Arts build foundational skills that help students improve in reading, math, and science while also helping students improve critical thinking skills. Reasoning is not only the purview of the sciences, for problem solving can develop from imaginative and playful exercises as well. Second, the Arts help to build a mindset that is focused on growth. In the Arts students can readily learn from their mistakes as engagement fosters further exploration while critical feedback offers direction and modeling of other possibilities. Third, the Arts encourage and energize the four C’s: creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communications. Creativity is, of course, the obvious beneficial exercise. Many areas of the Arts also emphasize and even depend on collaboration (the performing arts, for example, but also some forms of visual art). Critical thinking and problem solving were mentioned previously, and communication is at the heart of most artistic expression.
The complete original posting can be found here: http://www.edutopia.org/edutopianews.html?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=101916%20enews%20artsmusic%20l&utm_content=&utm_term=viewonline&spMailingID=15681415&spUserID=MTc4Mzg1MDE2NjA1S0&spJobID=881435796&spReportId=ODgxNDM1Nzk2S0
Posted on 9/16/2016 6:51:57 PM
By Donald Fox
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Wine improves with age except when it doesn’t. Athletes will improve with age and experience until the body begins to lose strength and flexibility. Many scientists peak and do their best work in their younger years, but sages generally gain wisdom and insight as they age. Artists, too, are said to be revolutionary (if at all) when young and more conservative as they grow older. How many of these statements are true and how many are clichéd stereotypes?
A highly talented athlete very likely will improve with experience. Even though physical skill may be present when young, understanding of the game comes with practice and playing time on the field. For artists, life experience is a powerful asset in the making of images. Skill in execution is important, but it is experience that gains insight into the human condition and generates ideas that are far reaching. A precocious artist like Picasso worked through many so-called periods, each of which is interesting for certain twists on traditional painting, but it was not until he was a bit older that he assimilated through experience and exposure to other cultural traditions ideas and insights into issues that would enable him to create a work like Guernica, whose subject and stylistic expression was far removed from those earlier period pieces that he did.
As a young artist, I had many ideas that fell flat because I was impatient and would not take the time to learn my craft. I was too busy being a painter but one that did not understand nor command the processes necessary to clearly express those ideas. It was like I was trying to write poetry without learning the complete alphabet first.
Not everyone’s path is the same, of course, but once I wedded skill to expression, I was able to visually express ideas of which I had not previously been aware. I used to think that I could tell others what they should do, but now I know that I can only make suggestions or point out some possibilities – the individual has to make the necessary personal choices. Insight is self-generated although one can be nudged in an important direction. A long and winding road is the perfect metaphor for the path that many artists travel. The important idea is to keep taking creative steps.
Posted on 9/6/2016
By Donald Fox
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I have made a career out of teaching both in and out of institutional settings. My current job is teaching English and related liberal arts classes in a private college. I also have been teaching a painting class privately for quite a few years fitting it around my regular schedule. Sometimes I’ve had to switch days or from morning to evening to be able to continue the class. For a long time I had a core group of students, and as will happen, some moved away, some faced health challenges, a few died, but always there were new students to fill in for those that left. Recently, though, forces have been creating conflicting results, not only for me and my own schedule but also for many of my students. So, for now at least, I have suspended that class. This is bittersweet since I will miss the camaraderie of the weekly meetings, the joy of helping those interested in painting improve their skills, and the critical challenge of how to best direct a student where he or she might need to go. It will, though, free up time in my tight schedule for more of my own work, something that any artist who works full time well understands.
I know of many who have put off their interest in pursuing art until after retirement. The demands of work and family were just too much to allow for creative expression. When I retire, I will do more painting, but I will also do more teaching that focuses on art for that is never work to me. It is interesting, exciting, pleasurable, stimulating, and keeps me thinking about development and growth as an artist since I am able to observe that happening in my students. People who come to art classes come for various reasons but among them always is because they want to learn. I can’t say that, unfortunately, for some of my college students who are there because they don’t know what else to do or because they think they should be in school even though they really don’t want to be. They haven’t thought through what their learning experience means. Not so for the budding artists. There is an inner drive that has impelled them to seek avenues of creative self-expression.
I’m sad about my class not continuing right now, but I can continue to keep in touch with those students and encourage them from afar. Perhaps on occasion we can do some group painting even though it won’t be on a regular basis. However, the time I put into my own work will be to their advantage as well when we do meet again.
Posted on 9/2/2016
By Donald Fox
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Working with students as I do on a regular basis, I am continuously seeing and experiencing lessons in preparedness or the lack thereof. In my career as an educator I have taught many subjects including English, Creative Writing, Painting and Drawing, Art History, General and Social Psychology, Speech Communication, Critical Thinking, Career Development, Computer Packaged Applications while working with mostly adult students from wide ranging backgrounds including countries other than the United States. From direct experience I’ve seen how culture and socio-economic conditions can affect students both positively and negatively. In every case, however, responsibility for learning lies with the individual regardless of whatever conditions or circumstances that person has faced or continues to address. The most successful are those who learn the lesson of preparation.
The prepared student comes with an inquisitive, open mind. He or she has read all support materials and generally has a set of questions in hand. If there is practice work or assignments to be completed prior to class, the prepared student has completed that. When approaching assignments, this student takes the time to read carefully what is asked before launching into the solution. Forging ahead with limited or false information will only result in failure. Impatience is not a positive quality for learning, and in my experience, impatience is a sign of lack of self-awareness, and more to the point, is often a sign of self-absorption, which is a huge distraction from taking in any new information or new perspective. A major part of learning is learning how to learn, and this is where self-awareness and personal strengths merge to individual advantage.
I never walk into a classroom or teaching situation unprepared. I have a responsibility to my students to help them learn, and in order to do that I must be prepared to respond appropriately to their needs. This includes, of course, in depth understanding of the material. I have to be able to explain information to others, which often requires thinking about a subject from their perspective and not just my own. Fortunately I have a strong liberal arts background so that my knowledge base isn’t centered only in one area although I focus mostly on art and literature. I understand the importance of context for without that some information can seem meaningless and irrelevant. Part of my job is to help students understand that what they are doing is more than learning new information; they are creating context within their own lives from their personal learning experiences.
Preparation lays the foundation and makes each successive step in the learning process stronger for it is built on something solid. Someone who is prepared is also receptive to what is given and is therefore more appreciative of it. I certainly have great appreciation for my past teachers and the many doors they unlocked for me. Part of their legacy is modeling behavior for me that I can now model for my students. Foremost among this behavior is preparation without which there would be little substantive action. Imagine the dancer who doesn’t know the steps or the writer without the proper words. Prepare the soil, and the fruits of that labor will continue to nourish for a lifetime.
Posted on 5/26/2016
By Donald Fox
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People that work with tools – mechanics, carpenters, artists, craftsmen – often have what might be called a tool fetish. They tend to appreciate the quality of a well-crafted tool. They admire its design, its weight, how it feels in the hand, while imagining what it can do in the service of its master. They also may linger in hardware stores, supply houses, or the section of a department store where tools and equipment are sold. They may frequently browse tool and supplies catalogs or online suppliers of these necessities of the trade. Their appreciation for these implements may not truly be at the level of a fetish, but they are seriously interested and intrigued by the well-made tool.
This is as it should be. Any craftsman understands that the right tool makes the job easier and more prone to success. A very dedicated worker might possibly create his or her own tools as did artists of the past, or modify commercial ones, specifically for the job at hand. Most likely, though, artists today will rely on manufacturers to supply the tools needed for creative work. Time constraints on the part of the craftsman and availability of quality products within the marketplace make ease of acquisition outweigh time required to make one’s own. And this is where the browsing bug attracts that person to stores, the internet, and particular tools that become known for their quality and consistency when put into practice.
A teacher from many years ago once counseled students to never throw away old brushes. Though worn and misshapen, he said, they still can make marks, and these marks will be distinctive or enable the creation of a textural flair that would be otherwise very difficult to achieve. I’ve heeded this advice, and being a generally frugal person, I have used brushes for decades as well as built an extensive collection of still viable (though some would say unusable) markers of all sorts (some can hardly be called brushes now). I’ve also discovered many implements in hardware stores that can do things with paints that standard brushes never could.
I do appreciate finely crafted tools and have acquired some that I now wonder how I ever did without, but I’ve also learned that ingenuity is a skill worth developing. It creates flexibility in thinking, expands the concept of creative thinking, and extends imaginative implementation to tools in addition to ideas. This can be as simple as using a rag to smear paint instead of a brush or asking the question “What would this do with a bit of paint on the end of it?” Well, let’s find out.
Posted on 4/21/2016
By Donald Fox
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Science has enabled us to learn and understand many things about the microcosmic and macrocosmic worlds that we inhabit, worlds that we would not necessarily experience in our daily lives, at least not consciously. Yet we do experience on some level these worlds along with what we normally perceive as the world we refer to as reality. Illnesses are sometimes caused by elements of the microcosm, as one example, and who hasn’t stared in wonder at stars in a night sky that seem to hang in that vast expanse that is so much greater than what we can see with our limited vision? Though we may marvel at the complexity and diversity of the world around us, for many such awareness is brief because of the demands and distractions of everyday existence, demands that more often than not are of our own making. Much of our welfare, though, has become dependent on the contributions of science especially in the fields of health and medicine. This alone is enough for gratitude to be living in this current time.
Art has enabled us to stretch our thinking beyond the rational and the theoretical into the seemingly limitless realm of the imagination. As we have discovered through science that there may be an infinitely large as well as infinitely small, and we continue to probe for limits to the expanding universe and to explore nanotechnology or uncover secrets of the subatomic universe, we also fire the imagination with image, language, symbol, and metaphor – ways of experiencing that do not directly rely on observation or experimentation to prove or disprove some theorem or insight. And yet we can, if we choose, apply observation and experimentation to artistic expression though our purpose may be more to experience (feel) than to explain.
There is a practicality behind science that leads to application of principles and ideas in the real world. Even with pure research that is distinguished from applied research, discoveries ultimately find their way into usefulness for they broaden the knowledge base upon which science continues to operate. To say that art is impractical because it has no real application or serves no purpose other than to be itself is to miss the value of speculation and experience for the sake of experience. Is there value in smelling a flower? Is there value in walking on the beach or in the woods? Is there value in observing a sunrise or a sunset?
Any of these experiences in nature can add value to one’s day, can give joy or pleasure, can bring peace, can remind one of simplicity and wellbeing, and can inspire one’s spirit or insight. Some might even respond in creative ways with the desire to express personal feelings. The majority of art does these things as well, or let’s say has the potential to do these things. Partly what happens in the presence of art, as in the presence of nature, depends on the individual. When the individual is prepared through learning and experience to perceive and enjoy art (even enjoying nature requires some learning), there is no question about value or importance. The individual, in fact, would create his or her life to include art as an important part of it.
One of the great teaching that art embodies is how to perceive from varying perspectives. Artists promote their individual visions and generally incorporate ambiguity as a way of experiencing creative expression. Learning to see from other points of view is a powerful lesson that can carry over into other experiences from the mundane and personal to the culturally expansive.
Posted on 3/15/2016
By Donald Fox
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Clarity and sense are two guiding words for written communication. A message, no matter how beautifully written, is ultimately of limited use unless it is clearly communicated. Take poetry as an example. Its purpose partly is to obfuscate, to be beautiful and seductive, to provide multiple meanings and possibilities, but not to provide clarity, at least not overall. That would defeat its larger purpose as a work of art. The highest art is filled with richness that may include clarity in parts but not clarity overall. Any work that is fully explained loses some of its mystery and power.
Of course we do not expect everyday communications to be art though we may speak of communication itself as an art. What we generally mean by that use of the word art, however, is that we must craft communications for specific clarity to ensure that they make sense to the intended audience. By comparison, art in whatever form has a limited audience though some artists may attempt to reach the broadest possible audience. Those works fall into the area called popular art, and with popular art one of the main purposes is entertainment. Therefore, its ability to communicate is paramount. As a result, clarity takes on greater importance in its creation.
In Shakespeare’s day, he and other playwrights included coarse jokes and comic characters in tragedies to appeal to the less educated among the audience who might not respond to the loftier verse that often dealt with philosophical and spiritual themes. The artistic craft of these writers and many who have come after them was such that readers and audiences continue to argue meaning today. Hundreds of books and articles have been written explaining this or that aspect of particular works. This continues with the highest art forms across many disciplines. Much is communicated, certainly, but the communication is neither direct nor always clear in these art works. We explain this by identifying an artist’s particular vision (his or her interpretation of art and the world) or speak about artistic license to justify anything that may deviate from the norm.
The wise artist will not create something unintelligible to the audience. That also would defeat its purpose as art. Art needs to be appreciated; it needs its audience. The artist may provide some way in for the audience, but there may also be many secret chambers to which keys must be discovered to unlock their secrets. Each artist creates these according to his or her purpose, intention, and creative ability. Those with many secrets may be those that last the longest.
Posted on 3/12/2016 10:44:49 PM
By Donald Fox
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At school I’m teaching in a department that has four week classes, part of a nine month program for the students. Basically every month I see a new set of students and work with them for that module of class. Sometimes I teach the same students several different courses. Since many of the students are young, often recently out of high school, their level of maturity is still very much adolescent. I am reminded of my own arrogant youth.
I hate to admit it, but there was a period of time when I was not a very good student. High school was a tumultuous time filled with the desire to fit in, longing to escape the confines of home, fear of being doomed to mediocrity, and general uncertainty about the future. Art was not particularly on my mind even though sometimes I rather egotistically thought myself to be some singularly great creative genius. That was part of the fantasy I carried around in my head while actually creating a fairly conservative high school career that did include involvement in a variety of clubs, organizations, and social circles. All of this I dropped right after graduation, which began my period of rebellion.
My choice to pursue art rather than engineering was a challenging one but one I’ve never regretted. What I do regret is my attitude for several years during this transitional phase. No one could tell me what was true. I knew the truth, and I pontificated often upon my version of it. I ignored my teachers, rankled under their criticism, and wasted a good deal of time and their energy spent trying to wake me up. Eventually I did wake up and began to learn how to learn. This is when I also began to understand the real power and significance of art.
Being an artist, for me, is about an attitude, not an egotistical posture of ‘being an artist.’ It is about coming from a mindset that the world is a miraculous place that is endlessly, creatively expressive – creation, transformation, destruction, revitalization – all of these ongoing processes that constitute life. In some small way, the artist emulates this creative process of change and renewal in order, I think, to simply appreciate and express appreciation for what is so abundantly around us. I hope that in some small way I can impart my insight to the students I encounter with regularity regardless of subject.
Posted on 12/8/2015
By Donald Fox
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Like most activities that require understanding and skill, artistic expression is dependent on developmental stages that prime the artist for the most effective expression. I suspect that other artists as they were learning their craft may have made mistakes like I did, or at least made their own versions of mistakes according to whatever proved most challenging for them in their development. Again, I suspect that most creative people conceive ideas that may well exceed their ability to manifest them at the time of conception, at least early in their careers. I would challenge anyone who paints to look critically at some of their juvenilia, and they will find examples of idea outpacing the skill to express it. There are, of course, exceptions with prescient individuals who produced remarkably mature works at an early age. They are among those we call prodigies. Most of us, however, do not fall into that category. We were motivated and perhaps also driven but not necessarily very accomplished until much later.
Good teachers can help growing artists learn to focus on the fundamental elements that will improve technique while encouraging them to continue exploring while also developing. I did not have good teachers, not good art teachers, for much of my youth and adolescence. In fact, I mostly taught myself from books or from observing what talented friends might be doing. Though my skills did not develop as quickly, what I did learn was how to research and how to find answers to questions and, especially, how to ask better questions. I also learned to become self-supportive, not in a financial sense although that came later, but in encouragement and self-acknowledgement. These sustained me in times when others would have quit. In fact, I knew several peers with highly developed natural skills who eventually gave up making art because their interests followed other directions. Their imaginative development did not keep pace with their physical skills. I also learned sensitivity to quality, that sometimes elusive factor or set of factors that separates great work from good work.
Learning to rely on my instincts and inquisitiveness also led me to explore many areas of creative expression, something that has given me broad appreciation in music, literature, visual arts, performing arts, and film. I see connections and parallels that others often do not see. In addition, I’ve learned from the study of other artists and art history that trends and fads are distractions. The artists that make the most powerful statements are those that follow inner directives rather than external ones. They still have to learn their craft, but their vision is singular and focused, They are not afraid to borrow when appropriate, but if they do, it is by completely assimilating whatever ideas they may absorb from others or their culture. In short, they will take an idea and make it their own.
The developmental process for every young artist is different, of course. This is as it should be. Learning always consists of many stages that include assimilation of knowledge along with development of skills. Doing creative work can be frustrating for anyone partly because the maturation process can be very slow. Once an artist hits his or her stride, though, the work often comes fast and furious. Reaching that stage can be a long and arduous process, and some will never make it because of distractions and misdirections. Support and guidance can help to keep one focused, but eventually I believe it will come down to individual strength and perseverance.
Posted on 11/12/2015
By Donald Fox
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As a first year graduate student in English Education, I interned at a junior high school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Unmarried at the time, I roomed with a fellow student in an apartment we rented in an old two-story house on the edge of the downtown area. The house had two apartments downstairs and two upstairs, but part of the upstairs was a walk-in attic accessed by a small door. Any adult would have to bend over at the waist in order to go through the doorway, but a small child could easily walk through. That seemed like a magical door to me probably because it reminded me of a door out of Alice in Wonderland. I still carry images in memory of line drawing illustrations from the Childcraft book that I had as a child.
The attic door was not locked, but none of the other tenants ever seemed interested. My curiosity always seems to get the better of me, and I could not help but explore every possible part of that old house I could gain access to. I don’t mean that I broke into anyone’s apartment – I’m not that obsessive – but I did explore the attic and the old garage out back. Partly I tried to imagine the lives of former occupants especially when the house was a single family home. At that time the neighborhood would have been completely residential, a nice one at that, since there was a small park just a half block down the street and another much larger park about two blocks away. I imagined other homes like might be seen in family films of the late thirties or early forties filling out the neighborhood. Then only a few remained, and none of those were family dwellings. They were either converted to offices or apartment buildings.
That particular house reminded me of my mother’s parents’ house, which was originally located about a mile further towards the center of town. It too was a two-story home but also had a wide front porch that I remember always filled with potted plants, lots of ferns and large elephant ears, and varieties of flowers. Blue and pink hydrangeas blocked the front edge of the porch as seen from the street. Two swings faced each other from either side of the porch. My last memory of being in that house was after my grandmother had died, and my mother, older brother, and I had gone up for the funeral. My brother and I stayed in one of the upstairs bedrooms, a very long and haunted night for me. Those were the days of chifferobes since many houses did not have closets or ones they did have were very shallow and quite small.
I had looked forward to spending that year in Winston because of many family-related memories: favorite cousins, holiday times, and first discovering a mild aptitude for music. It was to my great disappointment to discover that my grandparents’ house had been torn down. All that remained were the sidewalk in front, a walkway up to where the porch would have been, and remnants of a few pilings. My memories, though, remained intact, and I could easily re-envision the house in its prime including the smell of the interior, a mixture of mothballs, fresh bread, and oranges. I also remember being fascinated by the player piano that stood in one corner of the living room and more ferns that continued the porch jungle inside.
There is nothing now but those memories to remind me of that part of my life. We have no pictures within the family of that homestead, at least none that I know of. My mother is long gone, and my younger siblings never knew that home. My older brother has his own memories which do not always jive with mine, but this is often the way of families and life and memory. The past is a veil of sorts parted by bits of clarity or rent by gaps as mysterious as black holes in space. These bits and pieces, however, become the stuff of art in some form or other: visual, musical, or literary. We live day to day and build our memories one at a time, yet the older are sometimes displaced by the newer. Or, as is the case with many oldsters, the ancient past remains clearly visible, but the newer memories never quite fully form. Perhaps this yearning for the past comes from felling displaced in the present. There certainly have been many characters who have struggled with these issues from Shakespeare to Faulkner.
Posted on 9/25/2015 6:00:02 PM
By Donald Fox
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One of my painting students today called me a mentor for painting and drawing. I do think of myself as a teacher, but I haven’t seen myself assuming the role of mentor, which to me means a much deeper and more committed relationship to a particular individual’s growth. I have had many teachers in my life and many of these have had profound influences on my thinking and my actions. At the time I never thought of any of them as a mentor. Some were role models, but even those I saw as examples only although I may have admired them or their work greatly.
There is an intimacy, though, with mentorship that I never really felt with any of my teachers. I don’t at all mean to lessen their effect on my growth and understanding for this was considerable. Let’s just say I was never taken under anyone’s wing as a mentor might do. My current student, then, is perhaps being hyperbolic and the intention is to emphasize what I may have done (and continue to do) to encourage, to invite inquiry, and to consider from more than one perspective whatever is to be learned. All three of these actions I feel are important to learning and development in creative expression.
Looking back, however, I can possibly see that all those teachers that I encountered when put together made a kind of super-mentor for me that still exists in my mind and heart. I carry their words, their lessons, and their examples in a form with which I can dialog internally and continue to learn and grow from. In a sense, I have become my own mentor through the incorporation of all those past lessons carried through into the present. Mentorship may even extend to the world in which we reside, for that world engages us just as we engage with it and continuously provides lessons that challenge and provoke us. I am grateful for all of that as I am also grateful for those that might think what I have to share is worth their time and energy.
Posted on 9/10/2015
By Donald Fox
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Recently I ran across this blog from three years ago in an English folder on my laptop. I’m preparing to teach several composition classes that begin next week and have been accumulating examples of writing or thoughts on writing issues. This blog seems appropriate on several counts, so I’m revising as I read.
In addition to painting and teaching art, I’ve taught and tutored English and writing for more than twenty years in public schools, private schools, and colleges. What I’ve noticed is that someone who has problems putting his or her thoughts into words on paper also has difficulty reading, especially comprehending text. Many people blame this on the failure of public schools, disinterest on the part of parents, lack of funding for public education, poor teacher preparation, overcrowded schools, undiagnosed learning disabilities – the list could go on. This post, however, is not about how to fix the school system or even what its challenges may be. My concern is with unnecessary rudeness in emails or comments to blogs that in my belief stem largely from poor reading comprehension and subsequent inability to clearly express thoughts in writing. In a way this is an issue of poor netiquette, lack of manners on the internet. Actually, I think the issue is deeper. In fact, we see the issue magnified in the public arena when political campaigning begins. Just consider how many times a certain current candidate calls some action, idea, or person “stupid.”
If one misreads what another has written, however, especially when the reader holds strong opinions on the subject, there is greater chance of that individual taking personal offense and responding to the writer in an inflamed manner. It’s easy enough to find examples of this in the more traditional format of letters to the editor, but since these are filtered and sometimes edited, the egregious offenders simply don’t get published. Email, chat rooms, and blogs are another matter. The receiver or reader certainly has the option to hit the delete button or simply not respond to anything offensive. Some of us, though, and I include myself in this as evidenced by this specific blog, feel like we can either silence the offender or educate them to a higher level of communication.
As a teacher in an educational setting, I have a responsibility to my students to help them grow as effective communicators. I am the coach, facilitator, authority figure, counselor, critic (in the best sense of the word), and commentator who brings expertise, experience, understanding, patience, and even humility to the learning environment. I am paid to do this, and I have a vested interest. Plus, I often love hearing or reading what others have to say, and when I can help them say it more clearly and effectively, everyone benefits (I could say similar things about painting and teaching painting, but that’s another topic for another time). On the internet, the situation is very different. In a sense, everyone is on equal footing – well, more or less. If it comes to my mailbox or is in response to a blog I’ve written, then I may have more interest in what someone says than if it’s on their blog or comment stream. Either way, though, I don’t have to respond, but when I do respond, I can do so with respect for the other even if I disagree.
I used to feel really annoyed at silly emails that were obvious hoaxes and would arrive with a hundred or more email addresses of all the people it had been sent to thus far along with the URGENT all caps subject line to forward to everyone you know. That I never did, but I am guilty of replying to everyone on the list with an email that included links to several hoax buster web pages. That was a slight breach of netiquette in that I was assuming a superior attitude while informing everyone else how gullible they were. Now I just delete the emails unless a friend sent it; then I’ll reply to him or her only with a short polite note and link.
Lately there have been several blogs I’ve read that have generated some name calling and insults within the response stream (this appears to have escalated in the past three years). Aside from these being netiquette infractions, they also illustrate that some individuals are very poor readers who end up embarrassing themselves by responding in such inappropriate ways. The unfortunate thing is that they never know it. Even when someone calls them on their behavior, the person thinks the responder is just disagreeing or is now personally attacking them. This is very sad to see, especially when historically it can be shown how a misinterpreted or misrepresented message can so easily escalate to the point of creating large scale conflict. This is how rumors lead to riots.
What to do then? Online we cannot control another’s behavior unless we have the ability to expunge their commentary from a stream. We can, however, think carefully before we respond. If a direct response to an offending party only creates more negative responses on that person’s side, then do not further engage that person directly. If ignored, he or she will soon leave the discussion. I have seen a few discussions where a patient and tactful writer has led an offender, usually through a series of questions, to a more productive dialog, but this is rare. If someone is “on it,” there’s only so much that can be done given the distancing built in to online communication (often that distancing makes some bolder and more aggressive). Mostly, we have to monitor ourselves. Think and write clearly. Consider how a reader might respond before hitting the send button. Acknowledging that a point may be controversial or that others might disagree can often diffuse a potential argument before it actually becomes one. Veiled sarcasm or satirical humor might work in a blog or essay where a context can be created, but it won’t likely work in a response stream (I found this out once). Be considerate and use plain common sense. If you’re still uncertain, check online for the many resources that discuss netiquette and appropriate behavior while online.
Posted on 6/15/2015
By Donald Fox
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Samuel Clemmons, better known publicly as Mark Twain, was perhaps the wittiest of American writers, certainly the most satirical. In Innocents Abroad he wrote, "In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language." This is typical Twain style where he ironically states a truth while also utilizing humor and taking a jab at Americans’ inflated sense of self when traveling in other countries. Americans might have the tables turned, however, when receiving assistance through most any automated help line for paying a bill or trying to resolve a computer issue. Indian English or Pakistani English just might be as dense and obtuse as American French.
There can be humor in these situations until there is no clear communication for resolving a problem. This reminds me of the arts and how sometimes artists become frustrated with their audience because the audience does not seem to get the importance of the art work or understand that there is a message that is contained within its visual vocabulary. Some of the audience may not know that there is such a thing as visual vocabulary. Those of us who learned to read and write may or may not remember the struggle that did or did not take place as part of that learning process. Misplaced letters or incorrect choice of letters can make any word indecipherable not to mention legibility issues when words are poorly hand written or hand printed.
Eventually most of us do learn that letters make words, words make sentences, and sentences are necessary to express complex thoughts. We also learn that many words have multiple meanings which can give variety and multi-leveled experience to written language. The more we understand about syntax, grammar, and language versatility, the more we can read into most any text, especially literary and artistic text. Yet many have not learned that visual images can also have multiple meanings that can be equally as complex as those expressed in words, possibly even more so since it would take many words to express what a few colors and symbols can express visually. The old adage that a picture is worth ten thousand words is generally accepted but likely for its descriptive challenges rather than its symbolic ones.
Visual artists (like artists in any medium to be sure) strive to find simplicity of statement even when the ideas behind the work may be quite complicated and intentionally multi-leveled. It is the simple idea that communicates first, perhaps we could even say catches the viewer’s attention, and with repeated viewings, deeper levels of meaning gradually reveal themselves. We understand, hopefully, that this process takes place within the viewer and not because the art itself is being coy or devious or beguiling. The work simply is, but it contains possibility that we could say is like potential energy in an object at rest. The object must be set into motion for the potential energy to become kinetic energy. Likewise, the viewer has to interpret what is seen and must actively extract meaning that has been included by the artist that is part of the totality of the art work.
Does the artist make demands upon the viewer? Probably the majority of artists do expect the viewer to participate in the viewing process more than with a cursory glance. This does not seem unreasonable, and the artist would hope that the viewer is intelligent and an active critical thinker. In this circumstance, a kind of dialog can be established between the viewer and the work (the stand-in for the artist). We could even say that artist and viewer are speaking the same language.
Posted on 6/4/2015
By Donald Fox
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When I was younger, I had the idea that every time I worked on a drawing or painting I was making art. I was an artist and everything I did, therefore, was art. It was a silly and immature way of thinking, and it greatly inhibited my growth in skill and learning since the underlying assumption was that I already knew enough to make everything the way it was supposed to be. What I discovered, however, was that I couldn’t explain away all those attempts at something that came to nothing. Well, I tried to explain them. I wasn’t inspired or the idea wasn’t so great to begin with – I’d just move on to something else. What happened, of course, is that increasingly I wasn’t able to create what I had in mind. My desires outran my skill. I was simply not growing creatively.
I had something of an epiphany one day while thumbing through art books in the library. I came across a drawing by the sculptor Alberto Giacometti that at first looked like a bunch of scribbles on the page. This followed several drawings by Renaissance masters that were so carefully realized with tonal hatching and elegant form. Giacometti’s drawing was a collection of meandering lines, energetic for sure, but they seemed like uncertain wanderings of the pen point around the page compared to the surety of those other drawings. Still, my attention was held by those lines, and as I followed their interactive course, I began to understand that he was carving out the space in the drawing with the tip of his pen. Elements began to emerge, simple arrangements of table and chair in the corner of a room with a window on one side.
What I began to see was that the elements themselves were not important for what they were. They were very important as parts of the spatial design, shapes barely alluded to by the lines that glanced against them, placed them within the picture space, and then moved on to the next element, and the next and the next. It struck me that everything within that space was related to everything else. The line was like a beam of energy bouncing from object to object while leaving a trace of its movement that created an ever-tightening web of lines that seemed to make the space shimmer with presence.
We cannot see space. Space is the interval between things, and yet that space is what allows those things to exist as dimensional entities. Just as Archimedes exclaimed eureka upon discovering how to measure volume from the displacement of water in his bath, I had my own eureka moment as I was drawn into that elegant tangle of lines that began to make perfect sense in that one drawing. I looked more deeply into Giacometti’s method and saw the sense of his very serious studies of space through those wandering lines. From that day my work moved in a different direction. The importance was not in making something called art but in using the concept of art to explore the possibilities of space, line, and the many subtleties of perception both observed and conceived. The art would come in its own time, and in fact was discovered in the simplicity of tangled lines on an empty page.
Posted on 5/6/2015
By Donald Fox
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Through all the years I’ve been studying and making art, I’ve worked in a variety of mediums including all those used for two-dimensional painting and drawing plus sculptural mediums like metal, both welded and cast, wood, Plexiglas, cast paper, clay, plaster, and ceramics. I learned how to make paper and have explored various printmaking processes including traditional ones like woodcut, etching, and engraving. Some of these mediums and processes I have developed a certain amount of expertise with and others I’ve simply been interested in how they work to better appreciate what other artists do with them. I’ve often used experimental approaches with different mediums as a way to explore process and image. For several years I only did acrylic painting but eventually gave that up and returned to oil as a primary medium while also developing watercolor technique.
Oil has typically been my medium of choice (except for the acrylic hiatus), and I have utilized oil paints in both traditional and experimental fashion. There is something about the physicality of oil paint that is particularly appealing, for its possibilities seem nearly endless. It can be made thin and watery or it can be made extremely dense and plastic. It reacts to smooth surfaces like sanded wood, plastic, or metal quite differently from toothed ones like canvas or linen. It can be made to appear smooth or rough, transparent or opaque, glossy or matte. And, as can be seen in countless examples from the last six hundred years or so, it can be manipulated to resemble fabric, stone, wood, flesh, and a host of other natural surfaces in addition to creating other-worldly imaginative surfaces depending on the painter’s sensibility.
During the early to mid-part of the twentieth century, many experimental artists explored a variety of industrial paints including alkyd, acrylic, latex, enamel, and certain metallic paints. The fluidity of some of them lent themselves to use on vary large surfaces beyond the scale that most oil painters would attempt. It was as though bigger is better were the modus operandi of certain segments of the art community. Industrial techniques like spray painting and rollering were also incorporated as artistic techniques. Having done quite a bit of house painting, I also played with some of those techniques using oil, acrylic, and enamel on a range of surfaces. However, for my taste nothing beats oil on canvas although I sometimes still do work on hard surfaces like wood or mounted paper. Any of these, of course, are properly sized and prepared for oil painting.
As I have been transitioning from realism to abstraction in my work (a process I’ve done several times over the years, going one direction or the other), I’ve enjoyed utilizing traditional oil painting techniques like glazing, staining, scumbling, scraping, and impasto plus those Renaissance techniques like chiaroscuro and sfumato into less than traditional images. A friend of mine used to say, “Hey, painting is painting.” On most days I’m inclined to agree with him. Oil painting is oil painting.
Posted on 4/25/2015 7:28:38 PM
By Donald Fox
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In higher education there is a program utilized by many institutions called writing across the curriculum. Basically, students are expected to write in all classes including those that might not normally include writing like math or some sciences. The emphasis is on students learning to use writing as a tool both for learning and for professional communication. Many classes may require students to keep journals along with standard assignments like writing research papers. This is a common sense approach that helps students become better writers and better learners. It is not so different from visual artists utilizing drawing as a way to learn visual communication.
Artists that do draw frequently will find their visual thinking skills greatly enhanced. They will more easily be able to graphically represent their ideas and work through visual problems encountered in more challenging projects. For example, there is a long history of artists making preparatory studies for paintings, murals, or other visual projects. It is a relatively recent phenomenon for drawing to be a stand-alone medium that is exhibited along with paintings. For several hundred years artists did not exhibit their drawings because they were basically private, much like personal notes in a journal.
Many early drawings are referred to typically as studies. The intention for the artists was to work out ideas on paper before tackling the larger scale of the canvas or mural. Quite a few of these studies were drawn to a specific scale and then sized up for larger works using some kind of grid or linear pattern. Some contemporary artists still use this technique for large scale works. Small studies are created first to finalize the design, perhaps beginning with thumbnail sketches, proceeding to full page drawings with enhanced detail and finish, and then blowing these up to full scale of the intended work.
Some of the best drawings from the past, though, may be found in artist sketchbooks, and these were observations or ideas never intended for anything else beyond noting the idea or capturing some interesting aspect of a figure, an animal, a landscape, or an illuminated volume. For example, Leonardo’s notebooks contain sheets of studies of his many projects for his patron but also innumerable observations of natural phenomena – playful cats, the effects of wind or water, or the growth pattern of plants. Rembrandt has left us one of the most impressive collections of drawings (many of which were sold or given to patrons by the artist) including landscapes, domestic studies of home, wife, and children, casual observations of people in public, and religious illustrations as both drawings and etchings.
Drawing is a powerful artistic tool. We see its power manifested on the walls of caves from tens of thousands of years ago and in the sketchbooks of hundreds of artists over hundreds of years since the creation of vellum, paper, and other portable means of making quick studies. Every young student of art is encouraged and required (when in school) to learn drawing skills through countless hours of practice. Most dedicated artists will continue to draw throughout their lifetime, for this remains the most direct way to commit visual ideas to an external surface. Drawing is used for learning, for notating, for studying, for remembering, for problem solving, and for creative play. Its rewards are constantly and continuously manifested in the creative life of the artist that practices it on a regular basis.
Posted on 4/21/2015
By Donald Fox
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In traditional English grammar, there is a distinct relationship between subject and object in a sentence. The subject (what the sentence is about) is either doing something, having something done to it, or having something said about it. In the first two instances, we find an action verb expressing what the subject is doing (active voice) or having done to it (passive voice). For example, if we say “Jim ate the cake,” Jim is the subject of the sentence. He did something – ate. What did he eat? The cake is what he ate, and the word cake is the direct object or receiver of the subject’s action. By changing the order of the sentence to “The cake was eaten by Jim” the exact same action occurred by the same person, but the construction of the sentence has changed so that the former direct object, cake, has become the subject. That subject is now acted upon or receives the action of the sentence (and Jim is still the perpetrator although grammatically the noun Jim is now the object of the preposition by).
What this illustrates for us is that by changing sentence construction, changing the word order, we don’t change the result of the action – the cake is still eaten – but we do change our understanding of how the action takes place. Subject (Jim) and object (cake) in the first sentence reverse their roles in the second sentence: cake is the subject and Jim is a grammatical object. The first example is direct and to the point (active voice). The second example is indirect and has less power as a statement (passive voice).
To me it feels like there is something here relevant to understanding the kinds of statements that artists make with their work. Realistic painting, for example, is always a step away from its subject. No matter how convincingly portrayed, the subject is literally a two-dimensional recreation of something three-dimensional. Oh, that’s a given, we say. The artist only simulates the physical reality by representing it with paint on canvas. However, we also say that the artist expresses some truth about the subject or about reality or about his/her understanding/interpretation of reality. Additionally, because the artist has chosen to represent a particular subject (or subjects) from a particular point of view and emphasized or de-emphasized aspects of it, there is the new correlation between the subject and the artist that is at the core of the art work (the artist’s style, vision, interpretation, expression, commentary, etc.). There is symbolic meaning attached to the work that did not exist in the original subject. The art also becomes a commodity that often is valued more than the thing which it portrays.
As humans we admire skill, we give value to ideas and to things, we constantly compare and contrast, analyze and evaluate. Our attempts at creation are a kind of self-aggrandizement, they are a search for meaning, and, in fact, frequently they are the construction of meaning. We like to think that what we do matters just as we believe that who we are matters. History might offer compelling evidence in our favor as a species for the good we have created or against us for the evil we have perpetrated. Our art has captured both sides of the argument. Art, then, is either a subject or an object, much like those grammatical elements found in sentences. Maybe, too, there is strong influence on our thinking and our understanding by the nature of the language we use to express our thoughts and to interpret the world around us. Certainly we can be either active or passive in our own construction.
Posted on 4/4/2015 7:25:20 PM
By Donald Fox
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Numerous painters have made some variation on the observation that nature is the best teacher, or nature is the only teacher. This has been applied primarily to landscape painting and has become something of a mantra for plein air painters and a strong argument for plein air painting as an approach to art making – perhaps even the best approach. I don’t disagree for certainly observation is the primary way we learn from our youngest experience and throughout our lives. We emulate others by observing what they do and by attempting to say what they say. A baby will babble nonsensically but over time will control sounds to make a kind of conversational patter that still has no meaning for it contains no words. As we learn to organize sounds into speech, we are also learning to organize visual experience to differentiate things from background and one thing from another. This learning process seems to be innate (but language itself is not) although we obviously get help and guidance from our caretakers.
Painting or writing or other forms of artistic expression rely heavily on organization, and it shouldn’t be surprising that nature, in essence the world out there, is our major influence for organizational patterns. Most higher animals adjust to and learn from their environment in a similar manner. Once we acquire language, of course, the learning process is greatly accelerated, for then we can exchange ideas and knowledge with others as well as document our own efforts.
The history of human development and the rise of civilization includes a long and complex process of exerting control over nature especially those forces that can be life-threatening as well as life-giving. We have always sought safety, shelter, and comfort, and the urge to build likely is a direct result of attempting to construct shelters more suitable than those found randomly, which sometimes might have already been occupied. We sought to extend our physical capacities through reaction to natural challenges. The ingenious capacity of our brains for learning, exploring, and imagining ultimately set us far above our fellow creatures and enabled us to explore our self-awareness from which have come all the accoutrements of what we call civilization and being civilized, i.e. art, science, religion, social order (and disorder).
It should not be surprising that our utilization of art would lead us inward just as have philosophy, religion, and science, including, of course, medicine and psychology. Yet even as we have explored the inner world, our conclusions and expressions have been profoundly influenced by our observation of (and perhaps also from being part of) nature. She remains the best teacher even with all the accumulated wealth of knowledge from thousands of generations. Whatever we know is ultimately derived from our interaction with nature either first hand or secondarily through the ideas and responses of others. Our art is modeled on nature even as we utilize art to express our experience of nature. We use art to define ourselves and our world and to question our place in it. Sometimes we also use art to express the exquisite joy of being alive and the perplexity of all that we have yet to understand.
Posted on 3/12/2015
By Donald Fox
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Detail of 500,000-year-old engraved shell
A recent article on Smithsonian.com focuses on what may be the earliest known application of an artistic design etched onto a tool by early hominids. In the late eighteenth century human-like bones were discovered on Java that the discoverer, Eugene Dubois, suggested were evidence of a transitional species that came to be known as Java Man but today is known as Homo erectus. At the site also were found numerous shells that were collected but not particularly studied until just a few years ago when archaeologists looking through the shell collection and photographing some of them made noteworthy discoveries. Lighting used for the photographs made visible carved patterns on the white shells that are easily overlooked when the shells are directly observed. Indeed, they had been overlooked for over a hundred years.
Further study has suggested some of the shells were made into cutting and scraping tools with shaped and sharpened edges. The one shell pictured here has an engraved zig-zag pattern that had previously been overlooked. Dated at nearly five hundred thousand years old, this shell is the oldest known example of any decorative artistic engraving found anywhere. It predates the oldest known cave paintings by well over four hundred thousand years. That gives me goose bumps.
Archaeologists that have studied the shells point out that at the time of the carvings the shells would have been brown in color and the engraved lines would have been sharply contrasted in white. Who hasn’t as a kid made some kind of mark on the ground, on a rock, on a wall, on a sidewalk, or on a tree and then marveled at its stark appearance against it surface background? Many of us feel compelled even now to put a mark on something that we discover for the first time. Perhaps it has always been part of our nature to make graffiti of some kind or other even before we had language and would mark something with our name or our brand.
It is easy to speculate about the addictive nature of that marking or simply to contemplate the unusual and distinctive appearance of that personal mark. How did it evolve from these early primitive markings to the amazingly sophisticated cave paintings of forty thousand years ago? How did it further evolve to the earliest period of known history when humans actually began to keep records of their accomplishments? There is so much that is deeply embedded within human nature, so much that is part of our racial memory and our DNA that still is mysterious and unknown. We will never know some of these answers, but these questions and ideas continue to stimulate our imaginations and prompt us to continue making marks partly for expression, partly for investigation, partly for inquiry, partly for connection, and partly for the curiosity to see what we might be able to make.
To access the Smithsonian article:
Posted on 3/10/2015
By Donald Fox
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Paper Window
Famed (or infamous depending on one’s point of view and literary taste) crime writer Mickey Spillane once said "I'm not an author, I'm a writer, that's all I am. Authors want their names down in history; I want to keep the smoke coming out of the chimney." This reminds me of one of my former teachers Claude Howell, a moderately successful regional painter from North Carolina who late in life joked about having become part of the jet set when he flew to a gallery opening in New York. Claude always referred to himself as a painter, never as an artist. He said that after he was gone they could call him whatever they wanted, but he painted pictures and that made him a painter. He was brilliant, witty, mostly self-taught, never went to college or art school, educated himself by traveling through Europe and North Africa as a young man (and endless reading), established the art department at the community college in my hometown and led it for over twenty years including the school’s transition to a branch of the state university. As he gained success for his work, he remained the reserved Southern gentleman and had no regard for artistic pretensions. We had many stimulating conversations about art, its historical and cultural importance, and the over-inflated virtues of the art market. He also taught me more about literature than half a dozen English professors I encountered later. I always think of Claude as a dedicated painter, an inspiring educator, and the consummate artist, someone who lived the role rather than fabricating it.
There is so much hype in the art world at large. Impressionable students like I once was can easily be caught up in the swirl surrounding the latest thing – perhaps this was truer during the sixties and seventies, or so it seemed to me then as I watched many of my contemporaries following expressionist or pop art carrots. Claude had given me a basis for developing a strong critical sense, and a few other teaching artists strengthened that direction. I learned that artistic creation is a process, not in the sense of all that process-oriented art of the late sixties and early seventies wherein if you use certain buzzwords when talking about the work, you’re doing something significant. Process is much deeper and more substantial than that.
The process of creating art is something that develops over time. Everyone is different, for each of us is working through our individual process day by day. We have to come to an understanding of basic principles and how to apply them effectively, what constitutes the essential language of art, visual or otherwise. We have to learn about ourselves, who and what we are and where we are in time and what it means to do what we do. We are perceptive creatures and not simply reactive ones. Reflection is an important part of an artist’s development, for it is through reflection that we come to understand how to engage with the deeper work that we do
When Mickey Spillane’s critics railed that his work was garbage, he responded “Yes, but it’s good garbage.” He continued to write. There will always be critics, and there will always be those who try to categorize and castigate. Many of them get paid for what they do, so they have an investment in coming up with new ways of denigrating the creative efforts of others. What critics can never do is to take away one’s sense of self, for it is from self-knowledge that the best work always comes.
Posted on 3/4/2015
By Donald Fox
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British abstract painter John McLean said in an online interview that he sees complete continuity between figurative painting and abstract painting. As a painter who has worked in both manners of painting, I know exactly what he means. The obvious differences that most people would see between figurative and abstract paintings tend to disappear when a bit of thought is given to what either manner of painting is actually illustrating (I use that term deliberately).
If we compare and contrast the two approaches to painting in general terms, and we have to do this in general terms because to approach either with specifics we would quickly bog down in details that would sidetrack us from the idea of a painting, we can find more similarities than differences. First, both approaches to painting use exactly the same materials from the ground to what is applied to the ground. Second, both painting styles (styles used in the broadest sense here) employ the basic elements of design: color, shape, texture, contrast, position, and so on. Third, both styles of painting contain sub-styles that can emphasize hard or soft edges, colored light and illumination, shallow or deep space, emphasized or de-emphasized paint application and brushwork, spontaneous or carefully planned compositions, symbolic and metaphoric representation, and variations in scale from small to large. The overall process in bringing a painting to fruition is largely the same in either approach.
Where the two types of painting differ is mainly in the realm of content or subject matter. Realistic painting always represents something recognizable. We’ll come back to this idea for there often is confusion surrounding this part of a painting. Abstract painting isn’t picturing anything recognizable, anything that can be matched to something observed in reality. Because of this, many viewers who have never questioned what a painting is may scratch their heads in bewilderment when looking at something so completely outside their usual realm of experience and understanding (“What is it?” “What does it mean?”).
What about, though, looking at a painting of something? Does the viewer get lost in contemplating the objects or with associations that the objects may trigger? If so, then the viewer is missing a large part of the painting as image, for it is the combination of all those painterly elements that make up the painted image that are important, not just the image that is recognized (a bottle, a tree, a person, etc.). The artistry is not simply in making the craft totally disappear (“That is so lifelike,” ”That looks like a photograph,” “That looks like I could walk right into it.”). Granted, there is a genre of representational painting called trompe l’oeuil sometimes called ‘fool the eye’ painting. It’s whole focus is on making painted objects look super real usually at the expense of the paint itself. In other words, the paint is not seen for itself; it is transformed into whatever objects are depicted. Some would say that the viewer is given a massive visual lie. They are being tricked by the artist’s sleight of hand. In truth, this is one of the things that paint can do when an artist has developed great technical skill. The best of these paintings will also contain either some narrative element (the objects tell a story) or strong symbolic content (the objects are chosen for what they represent by association).
Realistic paintings can also be impressionistic or expressive when the artist chooses to do something other than simply re-create a visual experience (copy something). These approaches to realistic subjects are usually much more illustrative of the painter in action. Evidence of the painter’s presence through brushwork, physical texture of paint, or paint application with tools other than brushes like painting knives, trowels or rags give the painting a different kind of energy from paintings where the paint seems to disappear and become the represented objects. The painter may be suggesting energies found in nature or expressing personal emotional responses to particular subjects by manipulating the paint. An argument could be created here that this more expressive style of realistic painting gave birth to abstract painting.
Abstraction now has its own respectable history being that it is over a hundred years old, even more ancient if we look at some primitive art, ancient art, or medieval art as being abstracted forms of realism (emphasis on flat planes of color, simplified or stylized forms, etc.). What we may tend to think of as modern abstract painting is called non-objective painting by some critics. The subject matter has nothing to do with observed reality – although, and here we may get philosophical and even a bit metaphysical, abstract painters are generally painting ideas or feelings. They look inwardly rather than outwardly for an experience that is then translated into the visual vocabulary of painting. Colors, shapes, gestures, physicality of paint and surfaces – these raw materials are as much the subject of a painting as the feelings or ideas that are expressed through them. But, then, many abstract artists would argue that realistic painters are doing the same thing. To the casual observer, much of this may seem enigmatic or ambiguous, but most artists, having admitted to their personal artistic prejudices, will argue in favor of all art as being relevant and doing essentially the same thing, expressing the concerns of the artist.
Posted on 2/25/2015
By Donald Fox
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A fellow instructor came by my classroom yesterday evening and asked me a historical question. He couldn’t remember the name of a popular storyteller with a western flair who had spoken at one of the early Democratic conventions. All he could think of was Roy Rogers but knew that wasn’t right. I started thinking of other western stars like Gene Autrey and Tex Ritter until it dawned on me that he meant Will Rogers. My colleague had been using Rogers to make a point but got stuck on the name.
There have been many times in one class or another when I would think of an example from past history to illustrate a concept or lesson. Invariably my students would have no idea what I meant. Many could not tell me anything about the Viet Nam War much less the Civil War or the American Revolutionary War. This used to startle me, and I would wonder about the ignorance of today’s youth especially in this age of instant information where practically everyone walks around with a smart phone, a piece of technology comparable to carrying a public library in the palm of one’s hand. Yes, I know that most students and youth use their phones for texting or accessing social media.
Eastern spiritual leaders teach acolytes to be in the present moment. Their emphasis is based on the idea of not being distracted by the past, something that cannot be altered, or worrying about the future. There is only the present moment, and one should be mindful of what is happening right now. I don’t disagree with this idea, but I do think that the context of one’s life, one’s personal history, is important as well. We also are part of a continuum, and it is our responsibility to carry forward ideas and beliefs that have been given us by our forebears.
The great accomplishments (and the great sins) of the past are part of our legacy, and we are charged with remembering those who have gone before. The good that we have in the form of institutions, concepts, comforts, laws, and knowledge is the result of generations of human beings from a variety of cultures who have contributed to the world’s reserve of knowledge and understanding. It is our task to preserve while we also expand on what has been prepared for us. Sometimes preservation is as simple as remembering, but one cannot remember what one has not learned.
Posted on 2/15/2015 6:54:14 PM
By Donald Fox
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Rubens - Triumph of the Church
Today is the official opening of Spectacular Rubens at the MFAH, but my wife and I went to the member’s preview Friday evening. The focus is on four large tapestries Rubens was commissioned to design for the Spanish governor of South Flanders (there were twenty tapestries total), which was under the control of Spain at that time (the wife of the Austrian Archduke was Spanish, Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, and she became the sovereign after her husband died). A devout Catholic, Rubens was given the tapestry commission by the Infanta who wanted the tapestries for the convent in Spain to which she wished to retire. The King of Spain required her to stay in the Netherlands, and she never was able to return to Spain although the completed tapestries were installed in the convent.
Included in the current exhibit are six modelli, smaller oil studies on wood panels wherein Rubens worked out the designs for the tapestries. Full scale cartoons were later drawn from the paintings. The cartoons were attached to the tapestry material, and the images were woven from behind destroying the cartoons in the process. The tapestry images are the reverse of the paintings because of the weaving process.
These huge tapestries are religious and political since they show symbolic figures representing the Catholic church and its teachings defeating the forces of the Reformation, particularly Luther and Calvin. The counter-reformation was in full swing at this time. From the MFAH website: “Rubens (1577–1640) was commissioned to create the tapestries by the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, governor-general of the Netherlands, as a gift to her favorite convent, the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales (Convent of the Barefoot Royals) in Madrid. Raised at the Spanish court, the infanta was the daughter of Habsburg monarchs Philip II and Isabel of Valois. Spectacular Rubens reunites Rubens’s exuberant oil sketches painted for this commission with the original tapestries, the largest number of works for the Eucharist series assembled in more than half a century. The exhibition offers an unrivaled opportunity for visitors to experience the Baroque master’s extraordinary impact, on both an intimate and a broad scale.
Spectacular Rubens features six painted modelli, or large-scale oil-on-panel studies, from the collection of the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid. Also on view are four of the original silk and wool tapestries, among the most renowned treasures of the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales; several paintings by Rubens related to the Eucharist series; and a series of preparatory sketches for three of the four tapestries. The modelli have recently undergone conservation, rendering the pictorial surfaces once again lively and forceful, offering a record of Rubens’s impressive and beautiful brushwork.” http://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/spectacular-rubens/
Rubens was a magnificent painter although his extravagant works are a bit over the top for me. I do admire his skill and creative output. Also, he was quite extraordinary as a diplomat and moved in court circles in Spain, England, and France. He was knighted by both King Charles I of England and King Philip IV of Spain. His portraits of the rulers and aristocrats of the time give us striking images of the main players in Europe during the first half of the seventeenth century.
Posted on 2/12/2015
By Donald Fox
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One of the experiences I enjoy about painting is the discovery of unusual and interesting color harmonies that may happen spontaneously in the act of painting. Not long after I moved to Houston in the late seventies, the MFAH put on an exhibit of paintings by Paul Cézanne that had been gathered from museums and collections all over the world. I remember over one hundred paintings from throughout Cézanne’s working life as a painter. These of course included landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and a few fantasy paintings. I had seen some of his paintings here and there in various collections (and many reproductions), but to see so many all together was stimulating to say the least. I came back again and again to study these paintings, and I was able to see in his direct painting style how effectively color could be mixed and blended right on the canvas.
This is perhaps the greatest appeal for me in paintings by the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters. Academic painters often blend too well, and though they may create subtle transitions in paintings, there is little optical mixing of color as we so often experience in our direct observation of things in the world around us.
The twentieth century found painters going many directions, some paring down color in favor of form, some applying color arbitrarily to create unexpected forms, and some using color and paint as expressive tools before a counter-swing took color experience large scale into overwhelming fields of color emphasizing either hard or soft edges depending on the painter’s intention. Josef Albers’ experiments with interaction of colors begun in the thirties in Germany and brought with him to the United States, first at Black Mountain College and later at Yale University, influenced more than a generation of American painters. Albers’ focus in his own work was on precisely mixed color placed next to other color. He demonstrated optical effects in a hard-edged style.
Abstract Expressionism began to push the boundaries of easel painting and also utilized spontaneity as a legitimate force in the making of art (as opposed to reasoned, pre-planned execution through stages of development that had governed painting for over five hundred years). Color is the focus here, though, and in the seemingly haphazard approach of some Abstract Expressionist painters plus some of their choices of industrial paints over artist’s paints, another way of thinking about color began to emerge.
Truth be told, in my own painting, if I am working with realistic images, I am more reserved in color choices, for more often than not it is the image that governs what I do to create it. When I work abstractly (what I like to think of as symbolically), my color choices typically begin with simple complementary contrasts but soon expand into complex interplays among light-dark, cool-warm, and bright-dull optical counterpoints that create a painted landscape of color that begins to express its own inner sense of illumination. The process is a continuous series of choices of what colors to keep, what colors to enhance, or what colors to tone down as I move in and out of a painterly space (within arm’s reach and hand’s reach of the canvas) and an observational space (distance from which to view the whole either directly or from an angle). Like with words in poetry or phrases in music, I look for visual colored rhymes and slant rhymes (fun/spun or arm/warm/worm). The latter are often the most interesting to me in words and in color. Overall it is the richness of color interaction that creates the aesthetic experience.
Posted on 1/8/2015
By Donald Fox
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When I was a kid, one day a small stray cat climbed up the front screen door meowing as he went. It was summertime, and so the front door was open with the screen allowing some bit of breeze into the house. These were days before air conditioning at our house. My dad was intolerant of many animals and chased the cat away with a broom. I thought that exceptionally cruel since the cat had no place to go and was probably hungry and thirsty. To be fair, my dad had lived through the Depression as a teenager as had my mom, and both of them used to tell stories about strangers coming to the door asking to do odd jobs for a hot meal. No one was ever turned away even though both my mom and dad were younger members of very large families, and it was difficult enough for their parents to provide for their own kids. My mother became a generous person with a soft heart but not my dad. Perhaps this childhood memory is one reason that my wife and I have become active in fostering feral cats. Also, I love the elegance of these creatures. They are one group of nature’s intuitive dancers, graceful and athletic.
My artistic interests are a bit of a mystery within my family. I do have a cousin who makes ceramics, but otherwise there are no artists for many generations back. In fact, no one has ever mentioned any. There are, however, quite a number of educators, and these I have followed in my own roundabout way. Not only do I get satisfaction and pleasure from working with animals, but I also get a lot of pleasure and challenge (as with animals) working with students. I well remember my own student days and how teachers impacted me both positively and negatively (I did learn from both), and I am gratified to be able to pay forward some of what I have learned.
I think it important that students are fostered or mentored to become conscious and productive human beings. The exceptional few will teach themselves but most need either guidance or encouragement (some need both) to help them discover not only their capacity to learn but also the joy of learning. An animal will survive on its own, but if left alone, it will not develop aspects of itself that it has the potential for experiencing. A domesticated animal, when treated well, will become a loving and loyal friend. Students these days especially need interaction with a caring instructor who can teach by example as well as by experience and knowledge. This applies across all disciplines.
Much has been said about the social media savvy of young people today, and yes they do often have remarkable skills with certain devices. What they frequently lack, however, is a larger context in spite of their connectivity to a world that functions both locally and globally. Online social skills are no substitute for three-foot circle social skills. Any artist, any teacher, or any adult can become a fostering mentor for any student at any moment of the day. All we need do is put down the broom and extend a hand.
Posted on 1/5/2015
By Donald Fox
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When I returned to work today from the Christmas holidays, I found a package on my desk from Baker & Taylor Publishers. Inside were DVD copies of Ken Burns’ The Roosevelts: An Intimate History and the companion book of the same title by Geoffrey C. Ward (and Ken Burns). Both were inscribed to me and signed by Ken Burns. I had forgotten that several months before I submitted a question for Mr. Burns as requested by a Baker & Taylor representative. The publisher was putting together a webcast interview with Burns that would include selected questions at the end. My question was one of the ones selected, and the gifts were by way of thanks. Mr. Burns is quite eloquent in the interview (itself as interesting as anything in the seven hour series shown on PBS) and is archived at http://webinars.baker-taylor.com/KenBurns/event.htm
In the preface to the book, Burns writes “…human beings seek always to superimpose some frame, some order on the randomness of events, to find meaning in it all precisely because of that inevitable mortality.” This seems to me to also characterize one of the primary purposes of art, which seems doubly fitting since artists create order in their art from the randomness of experience.
Much of our formal learning comes from exposure to orderly presentation of information that has been organized for us by educators, writers, and researchers. Humans’ capacity for learning is the result of the powerful processing capabilities of our brains. That processing is itself organization of sensory input. The human brain excels at organizing sensations into perceptions.
In English and writing classes we are taught the narrative, dividing and classifying, cause and effect, process, argument and persuasion, and definition as forms of writing. All of these are simply ways of organizing information into written words in order to create understandable messages that may be conveyed to another as I am doing now. Our brains are wired to process according to these forms, which we do intuitively. Studying the forms helps us to clarify and polish those skills so that we may communicate clearly.
In science classes we may be taught about the natural order, and we learn to see the orderly structures that exist in nature including our bodies and our brains. In spite of all that order, microcosm to macrocosm, there is a huge amount of randomness underlying the interaction of various natural forces. Do we choose life or does life choose us? Do we choose our parents or do our parents choose us? Some philosophies or religions may suggest that or some other greater design, and these also are part of the human attempt to give order and meaning to the random universe.
In art we learn to organize design elements into images that communicate ideas with or without words (or with whatever fundamental elements a particular medium may employ). We learn to impose order on our experience to convey something about our understanding of that experience and perhaps touch on some element of shared experience that enlightens both artist and audience. We seek meaning by imposing meaning in some chosen form, yet our understanding most often is that there is no definitive meaning since meaning can nearly always be “discovered” in the most random experience.
Posted on 12/9/2014
By Donald Fox
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Nearly everyone has some opinion about art, particularly what is good art and what is not so good art. This may well have been the case for as long as there has been art, which has been a very long time in human history. In fact, art predates written history by tens of thousands of years, so much of early art is in the realm of speculative history.
There is much irony bound up with the story of art. Generally, we think of art as beautiful things that express something about the human experience, but as we look deeper into the vast array of objects that comprise the immense treasure trove of art from the most ancient to the present, we also find there is quite a lot of not so beautiful art.
There are objects that are controversial partly for the subjects they address and partly for how certain subjects may be treated. Can we call a painting by Rembrandt that graphically depicts Samson’s eyes being gouged out while he is restrained a beautiful object? The intensity of this work is staggering. The sadistic focus by Samson’s torturer is powerful enough, but add to that Samson’s impotent struggle against his attackers, the obvious agony in his face and body down to the curling of his toes, and this dramatic representation reminds one of videos that have become all too common of Westerners being forcibly decapitated by fundamentalists, not in one clean stroke by a guillotine but gradually sawed off by a knife-wielding assailant.
We could easily call up dozens of examples of paintings or sculptures with similar challenging subjects some of which lack the polish of Rembrandt’s Dutch Golden Age expressive style. Whether depicting erotic acts as in the Khajuraho temple sculptures, debauchery in many paintings of mythical orgies, or crucifixion scenes that emphasize the physical suffering of Christ, artists have addressed the brutal, the profane, and the ugly for thousands of years. We can’t only disparage the poor taste or bad manners of some modern painters. On the other hand, maybe to speak of art as representing the beautiful is a bit too simplistic. Perhaps we should grossly amend our view of what is considered beautiful.
Art is ever changing, for as expression of human curiosity and desire, art is the expression of the human psyche. It is not art that makes the rules or demands a particular realization or another. Human thought and feeling are the sources from which art emerges and not the other way around. Art, then, can be said to mirror our desire for the beautiful and the uplifting, but it also mirrors the darker side of our nature, often in no uncertain terms. Perhaps the calling for judgment whether art is good or bad is a far deeper question than we realize.
Posted on 11/13/2014
By Donald Fox
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Artists learn to observe by practicing their observational ability through drawing and painting. Observing is a very active process whereby the artist is paying close attention to various facets within a field of vision. Let’s say for simplicity sake that what is being observed is a cup on a table that has been placed in front of a wall. The cup in this instance is a white ceramic coffee cup with its handle on the viewer’s right side. The table is about two feet deep and four feet wide. It is covered with a medium blue cloth. The wall behind the table is painted a neutral gray. To the right of the table is a corner, and the wall comes forward on that right side. There is a window on that side wall through which sunlight is shining. This illuminates the table and the cup, which casts a shadow to the left side. These are the basic elements that can readily be observed.
One of the first choices that the artist makes is how to frame the scene that is being observed. Let’s say that part of the left side of the table is cropped and also the right side. The right wall and window are not part of this two-sided selection. The bottom edge of the frame cuts a few inches below the front edge of the table so that the lower band is shaded a slightly darker blue than the top of the table where light is hitting. The top of the frame is about one and a half times the cup’s height above the top of the cup. Because the observer is sitting down, his eye line reveals the cup opening as an ellipse, wider side to side than front to back. The point of view also limits the perceived depth of the table top.
In this scenario, the artist decides to locate the cup within the frame to the right of center because the cup’s cast shadow extends to the left and creates a dark accent on the table surface. Initially, at least, the cup is rendered with line expressed as outline. Attention is paid to proper proportions between height and width, the cup opening, and the handle on the cup’s right side. Lines separate what is cup from what is not cup or surrounding space. Cross-hatching is then used to begin suggesting shadows and the variance in light that strikes the wall behind the cup. The wall surface is lighter on the right side (where it receives more light) and darker to the left side. This gradient works to suggest that the cup has dimension and sits a certain amount of space from the wall. The cup’s cast shadow on the table surface places the cup in contact with that surface and also adds to the definition of space. The cup’s volume is suggested by shading on the cup’s left side and inside the cup’s handle.
The artist is making use of visual cues that are translated into linear and tonal marks to indicate height and width, proportion, depth, volume, and illuminated space. Psychological principles of continuity, overlapping planes, size variance, and light and shadow are expressed through the shorthand of specifically placed marks on paper. The artist is not observing any marks in his field of vision, but the marks on paper serve as notations of the observations that he is making. The drawing that emerges is the outward expression of what is being processed mentally as the artist observes the scene while also observing that scene recreated via his chosen medium on the paper.
In essence there are two perceptions involved. The first is the series of observations of the actual scene and the second is the perception of the drawing as it gradually develops in response to the first observations. Since one process follows the other but then other observations verify both what is seen and what is drawn, the two processes are inextricably linked. The resultant drawing allows the viewer to catch a glimpse (after the fact) of the artist’s visual thinking process. This will become an important part of the viewer’s appreciation of the art work.
Posted on 11/10/2014
By Donald Fox
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The spiral is one of the basic design forms in nature. Many plants spiral upward out of the ground into their mature height for flowering and bearing fruit. Smaller parts of some plants also grow in spiral fashion as seen in many different kinds of flowers. Other natural forms like varieties of seashells follow a spiral pattern: many seeds, snails, pinecones, human fingerprints, ram’s horns, and others are among the physical objects that mimic this design. Other spiral patterns emerge from energetic movements like the spiral motion of hurricanes and cyclones, tornados, eddies and whirlpools, and in the far reaches of space, the rotation of galactic disks. This elegantly beautiful design form has been recognized for thousands of years and was developed by the ancient Greeks into the mathematical model of the golden section, sometimes called the golden mean.
Humans also utilized the idea for various mechanical devices: the Archimedes screw, the coiled spring in a clock, screw fasteners, screw on lids, paper binders, corkscrews, drill bits, and washing machines among others. We might ascend spiral staircases or play with toys like spinning tops or kaleidoscopes that incorporate spirals into their workings. This one example of a natural design and its many manifestations and applications illustrates the impact that the natural world has on our psyche. As receivers of information, we are attuned to the natural world by our own design since we respond to what is out there because we are literally tuned in to the resonant frequencies of light, sound, and vibration from which we and everything else in the universe are composed. Can we ever not express nature in what we do?
Often the distinction is stated between natural and man-made. We have a very long history of tinkering with nature’s designs, of altering materials or space to suit our purposes. Now we have expanded the human brain by creating an artificial one and connecting its circuits globally. We have unleashed the power of the atom even at our own peril. We now seek to alter genetic codes for designer purposes – to improve crops, develop cures for nature’s imperfections, and possibly make ourselves less destructible. Some aspects of this are debated among professional and laity alike, but we’ve already birthed the generation that will not have known life without computers, an internet, and instant messages. How that will affect our move into the future is as yet unknown.
Posted on 9/20/2014 6:38:14 PM
By Donald Fox
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Another purpose of art is to propose a definition of reality. We’re not talking about a dictionary definition (“the quality or state of being real”), but quite a few artists speak of art as being a window on reality. Other related concepts are that art represents a higher state or elevated consciousness, it is ‘true’ seeing or perceiving, it illustrates the connection between an inner world and the outer world, and sometimes art s used to question reality.
The concept of art as a window on reality comes from Renaissance painting. The canvas or panel or other ground serves as a window frame. Everything within that frame is represented realistically and believably as though one were simply looking through a window. Many Renaissance portraits depict the subject positioned in front of a window beyond which is seen a landscape. Part of the painting is referencing the idea that the entire painting is composed of what one can see through that particular frame of reference.
Paintings, however, are constructs, and whatever is represented through the window (within the picture space) is altered by the particular artist’s vision and style. This interpretation of reality is in fact a visual statement of a new reality. The artist represents the essence of something. Portraits by Rembrandt, Holbein, or Titian are good examples for each artist captures more that a sitter’s likeness. The inwardly and outwardly focused eyes of the subjects give viewers a glimpse of character and psychological depth that simple verisimilitude would not portray. The probing intelligence of the painter acknowledges and expands things as they are.
As keen observers of the world, artists see with a kind of hyper-vision. They see what most people don’t see, and thus artistic vision is described sometimes as a higher state of consciousness. From an elevated perch somewhere above the mundane world, the artist is recording his or her view so that everyone else may see, at least momentarily, from the heightened perspective. Some ineffable, mysterious, or hidden truth is magically revealed through artistic insight. The artist, then, gives a true representation, a true perception of the way things are. The audience, through participation with the art work, is lifted from its limitations to this higher level of experience.
The inner world of the artist, the painter, is truly unique as is the inner world of each of us humans. We may share desires, hopes, or dreams, we may have to meet basic survival needs, but no one else can know the inner self save the individual to whom it belongs. Artists use their artistic vision to make a bridge between their inner worlds and the outer world that we all share. However, just as witnesses to an incident may give different versions of the same event, so do the interpretations of the outer world vary from artist to artist. Even so, artistic expression manifests forms that make those interpretations accessible to the artistic audience.
Sometimes artists use their art to question reality. This may include imaginative metaphor as seen in many paintings based on mythological themes as well as those based on spiritual themes. In a sense, artists are suggesting alternate realities through their art. Surrealist painting, for example, which has a very broad scope of style and expression, generally juxtaposes images that do not or cannot exist in reality, at least not simultaneously. Drawing on dream images, visionary images, and even nightmarish or ghoulish images, artists pose the question again and again as to what is real. Through art, we can experience reality in ways that are not otherwise accessible.
