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Posted on 2/28/2013
By Donald Fox
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Many sportsmen, fishermen or hunters, often talk about the one that got away. Whether these activities can really be called sports since at least half the participants were never asked to play and for them it’s a deadly game, is another topic for another time. Certainly it is common, though, to have occasions where the prey escaped. I have my own stories from fishing when I was a kid. And, with many endeavors, including art making, there are times when the outcome is different from what is expected, and so the goal is not achieved.
Artists that do any kind of experimentation will have many stories about experiments that simply did not work. We can find examples sometimes in art museums of paintings by well-known artists that were never finished. Whether these were abandoned as lost causes or had been set aside and other priorities took precedence, in most cases we will never know. I imagine, however, that quite a few artists have work somewhere in their studios that is incomplete. Some of that may be from choice, some may be from reaching a point of indecision, some may be from loss of interest, and some may be flat out failure. Whatever the case, these are the ones that got away.
Ideas can seem great at the outset, but as the execution proceeds, problems not foreseen begin to emerge. The art making process can deteriorate from one of creative expression to one of forced problem solving. Repair projects certainly have a way of turning into this process as I’m sure many can attest. A project to replace damaged wallboard may reveal fractured or damaged studs that must also be replaced. Uncovered electrical wires may be badly frayed and require replacement. The initial project has just grown out of proportion to its original low, self-repair cost. Similarly, a painting may go awry and may require either major repainting or possibly a complete re-envisioning of the initial idea. There are a few stories about visitors to Cezanne’s studio finding a painting or two stuck in a bush or up in a tree where the artist had flung it in his frustration. This is not to suggest that Cezanne was a particularly violent person, since by all other accounts he was not, but it does suggest that the particular artist can certainly experience unexpected problems.
Artists do have to be prepared for those times when the normal process may not yield the desired results. Addressing the challenge may necessitate rethinking the original idea, making significant changes, or in some cases starting over from the beginning. Probably most of us have faced this issue more than once. As trained professionals, we do what is necessary to fix it, put it aside for later remedy, or let it go altogether and go on to the next idea.
Posted on 2/27/2013
By Donald Fox
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Beginning in high school, I read most of the work by the American writer John Steinbeck. For several years I considered him my favorite writer, but later I focused more on the work of others like William Faulkner and Eudora Welty. A good writer like a good painter will create a world so believable that the reader or viewer is pulled totally into the experience. There is no hesitation or holding back for my part. I completely give in to the experience because it is so powerful and convincing. Anything less certainly pales by comparison. John Steinbeck said: "The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true." I think this belief is conveyed in the work, which is why the reader/audience is so readily pulled in.
Usually I avoid using words like must or should when talking about what I or anyone may do as an artist. These kinds of words suggest to me rigidity in thinking that can easily become dogmatic. Good critical thinking is by far more important and can lead to effective choices and actions, but I understand what Steinbeck is suggesting with the idea of commitment to one’s artistic expression. There is no such thing as half-hearted commitment. There may be half-hearted effort, but commitment is absolute dedication. From that commitment comes work that is powerful, affecting, and transformative for the artist and the audience.
Not every work will elicit the same kind of response, for works may differ in intention and in scope. Tolstoy’s War and Peace is an epic drama that encompasses many characters, situations, major events, and spans the range of human emotion and challenge. The novel has been translated into film both in America and Europe as well as in serialized versions on television. Another written story that was made into film is Brokeback Mountain. Originally a short story by Annie Proulx, the film version was created by director Ang Lee. The human drama is reduced to only a few characters and essentially spans a lifetime. In story form, it is only a fraction, maybe as much as a chapter compared to Tolstoy’s massive work. Tolstoy’s novel has the sweep of history and the backdrop of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. Proulx’s story is more localized and narrowed in focus. Both writers, however, create powerful experiences for their audience, for both have the belief in the importance of their world view.
Painters don’t tell stories in the same way as writers. If they use narrative, as in some of the history paintings, the scope is episodic at best. Narrative is not the strong suit of painting although there have been painters who have dealt with epic themes – Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling is one major example. Even so, paintings can create experiences for the viewer that may be totally engrossing even at small scale like some of the interiors of Jan Vermeer. The power of the piece comes from the artist’s commitment to his or her medium. Through that medium, the majesty and mystery of human existence is made concrete and accessible.
Posted on 2/26/2013
By Donald Fox
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Reading is a fundamental skill that many people take for granted. Some may have struggled with reading when they were much younger, but somehow they have forgotten those issues unless the experience was very traumatic. It is easy to think that someone could be given written directions to do something or get to a particular place and by following the directions successfully accomplish the task. Having taught for many years, however, I’ve found that surprising numbers of students have great difficulty following instructions – written instructions are even more daunting.
My older brother taught me the fundamentals of reading before I entered school. Consequently, I fell in love with reading at a very early age, and all through grade school I had several friends that constantly shared their reading with me and I with them. We even had competitions over who had read the most. We read all sorts of books, both fiction and non-fiction, because we loved reading and learning. Our reading experiences fed our imaginations and expanded our worlds. Through our reading we also learned history and geography and understood science in a much broader context. Reading for pleasure almost always enhances reading comprehension, which is one of the biggest challenges for young people today and for those who have not sufficiently exercised the skills they did learn in the past.
There is much in the arts that can be learned by reading. Art history is more than pictures, for a good text helps to create context and show connection and parallels between cultures and time periods. It can be interesting as well to learn about the aesthetic ideas behind artists’ creations. It is not only critics that philosophize about meaning and significance. Artists have done this for hundreds of years, and many of them have written extensively their ideas in addition to expressing them visually.
Today, even when using the internet, the user must read a wealth of material while moving from site to site. I’ve seen many mis-readings lead to wrongful interpretations and unsubstantiated conclusions as well as some students choosing sites as sources that actually give false information. Biased information can be misleading either from exaggeration or selectively omitting anything that might be contradictory. Careful readers will note discrepancies and erroneous information. The old saying that “the devil is in the details” can also have a positive meaning when those details give important and substantive weight to an argument.
Reading also helps to clarify thinking. As we mull things over, we often create a deeper understanding. Leonardo da Vinci understood that as we contemplate something, visualize it with the mind’s eye, as we so often do through reading, we embed that idea more deeply into our consciousness and memory. The exercise of imagination through reading helps us to grow intellectually and creatively.
Posted on 2/25/2013
By Donald Fox
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In the field of scientific research, sometimes a reader may come across the term “pure science.” The best guess is that this idea has to do with scientific research that has no particular goal or practical application in mind. The latter might be called applied science. Some researchers might say that they are only interested in theory. They work in their labs simply to prove or disprove certain theoretical concepts, and the work may in some way add to the overall plethora of scientific information but nothing applicable comes from it. The real problem solvers are those that can take experimental information and apply it to specific issues, develop new vaccines, enhance the efficiency of fuels, or make life better in some way. Such is the view of many non-scientists.
Within the scientific community, there may be tension among the pure scientists and the applied scientists since both often compete for the same research dollars. Pure science within a university setting may enhance the prestige of a research university whereas scientific patents can actually bring in royalties. Still, in the long term, pure science can enlarge the overall understanding of how things in the universe work. It creates the larger picture within which the day to day problems of applied science are resolved.
In the history of art, there have been artists who might be thought of as pure artists. They created art for the love of it or because they felt compelled to do it or they didn’t want to do anything else – the reasons could be many and varied. They did the work and continued to do the work regardless of receiving any reward or recognition. Some of them, like a few mad scientists, were regarded as misfits or somehow lacking in social qualities that would have brought them acceptance. Yet many of the misfits left artistic legacies that have benefitted succeeding generations far more than many artists who were successful in their own time periods. Some of these latter ones are all but forgotten. Names like Vermeer, El Greco, Mozart, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, and Emily Dickinson are widely known today as are their works, but they often lived impoverished or relatively unknown lives. They have altered our perceptions about the development of painting, music, and poetry in spite of their lack of immediate impact.
The vast majority of artists working today (and maybe during any time period) desire the practical side of art. They strive for recognition and financial success, sometimes at the sacrifice of their art. Not everyone would agree with this statement, for there is a strong belief that artistic expression of the highest order equates with financial success of the highest order. Generally this is true perhaps in the popular arts, music especially, or film or popular fiction. It is not necessarily true for poetry, large segments of literature, and many forms of painting. How one decides where the emphasis in one’s own work should be will be totally up to the individual. As artists, we all make choices about what and how we create anyway. Just as there may be tension in the science community between pure science and applied science, there is frequently tension in the arts between personal creative expression and commercialism. The so-called pure artist may blanch at the thought of making his or her art a commercial product, but that is exactly what it becomes in the marketplace. Making work specifically for the marketplace may bring up questions regarding its efficacy as legitimate art. Every artist has to resolve this duality at some point in time.
Posted on 2/24/2013 6:28:44 PM
By Donald Fox
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It is a gray day today although it started out quite sunny. Clouds have accumulated all day long, and now the sky is completely overcast. All the bright colors of trees and flowers, cars and street signs are now muted and dulled. Even the warmest of colors have a much cooler temperature. Working in the studio today, I did not notice the change in outside light even though my studio has skylights but also color-corrected lighting. The few times I left to come back into the house, I did notice the change in light, and now sitting in my office, I can see the grayness in the sky.
On bright, sunny days the blue sky is more intense and deeper in color as I look up, but it lightens considerably towards the horizon. On gray days like today, the sky is lighter overhead and darkens to bluish gray coloring towards the horizon. Browns look black and colorless unlike the rich variety they contain when the sun is shining fully. Browns can often move towards green or purple given their surroundings and proximity to shade. Now they are variations on warm or cool grays.
In spite of all this neutrality, the outside mood does not seem gloomy or sad. There is subtleness in the variations, and this lends an air of mystery rather than somberness. All of the reflected light is also very soft and subdued. There are no strong contrasts among shadows although there are distinct differences between light and dark. It’s as though the value scale shrank by several notches from each end. Also, late in the afternoon as the light begins to fade with the onset of evening, colors will disappear a bit more quickly than on sunny days when the setting sun creates a warm glow in the sky and greens begin to mutate into brownish versions of themselves, the sky intensifies with the colors of fire, and then tones of purple before fading to black, which is really a very deep, muted purple.
I’m resisting the urge to turn on a light in the room. The computer screen reflects enough light onto the keys so that I can continue to type for the moment. I enjoy pausing to scan the room and see shadows deepening along with colors losing their intensity and their ability to hold their particular identity. Poets have often spoken of the dying light or the dying of the day. I prefer to think of this as a temporal transition, part of the great cycle of yin and yang energy gently rolling from one to the other, light to dark.
Observing color is important for painters since color is fundamental to the making of art unless one is working graphically with only black and white or working with a sculptural medium that does not require color as part of the expression. Picasso created a lot of art using only black and white for he felt that color interfered with the structure of a painting. He used color in paintings and other types of work that he did for the marketplace, but the major work (Guernica, for example, or the works based on Velazquez’s Los Meninas) and those he created for himself, he executed in black and white. This is an interesting concept and one that is exclusively modern. Artists of the past did value studies with graphic media as preludes to painting, but none of them worked solely in black and white. Even Goya’s so-called black paintings, although dark in tonality and subject matter, also utilize color to represent the figures. To make black and white paintings would have been unthinkable for classical artists.
Posted on 2/23/2013
By Donald Fox
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Picasso - Los Meninas
In the late 19th century, certain artists began to ask fundamental questions about the nature of art and painting specifically. Whether this was due to the introduction and rapid development of photography, as some believe, is difficult to prove. Renaissance artists had opened the picture space as a window on the world. The development of linear and aerial perspective and particular techniques like sfumato and chiaroscuro gave painters the ability to paint increasingly realistically with precise compositions in a believable space. Artists like Cezanne, and a few others, began to question those principles that had become codified by the academies. Some say this began the disintegration of art.
In his letters and writing about art, Cezanne frequently stated that nature is the best teacher, but he also recognized that some painting was very solid, especially when artists found inspiration in nature. His thinking about spatial planes was no more abstract that what Renaissance painters did using line, through perspective, to govern spatial placement. Even though he began to think of composition as a kind of spatial geometry, he continued to think three-dimensionally while wrestling with the two-dimensional world of the painter’s canvas.
Picasso and Braque, following to some degree Cezanne’s painterly explorations, in the early experiments with cubism, created images that could be described as Cezanne simplified. Some of those early landscapes interpret scenes as though the young painters were following Cezanne’s dictum to render nature in terms of the “cylinder, sphere, and cone.” They pushed the idea much further than Cezanne ever did (and some argue that he probably would not have). From this they developed synthetic cubism and began numerous surface experiments physically altering texture of paint with additives like sand and further adding collage elements that often were painted over. Viewing the just opened exhibition of Picasso’s black and white work at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston last night, I noticed several interesting visual statements.
In spite of the often described intention of early cubism to show more of a figure or scene than just a frontal view, that is, to break the image into simultaneously observed planes in space, Picasso’s work often comes across as being essentially flat. Several portraits in his neoclassical style are little more than painted line drawings. The figure exists as an outline with no modeling. The inside of the figure and the surrounding space are painted the same scumbled white. Only the black painted line defines the figure, but it also serves as a connection between positive shape and negative space. Picasso has posed one solution to the problem of the flat picture plane similar to Matisse’s resolution in a painting like The Red Studio.
Secondly, in many of Picasso’s freely exaggerated figure abstractions, the figure is split between frontal and profile view (one side being black and the other white), the two being joined like cut-outs along a curving edge that bisects the figure according to prominent features like nose, mouth, chin, or breast. Two ideas occurred to me here. One is the relationship to Egyptian painting with its insistent frontality that places the head in profile, shoulders forward, and legs in profile. Picasso has offered a visual alternative that introduces an element of playfulness. The other idea is that something seen from a distance is greatly simplified and flattened naturally. Gradations of value disappear, and a simple light-dark contrast can easily be observed. Also, the lack of observable details or nuances tends to emphasize the flatness of the shapes. This can be readily observed in nature, and it is possible that such a pictorial idea occurred to Picasso either from his own insight or from contemplating Cezanne’s work.
Much of Picasso’s post-cubist work is 1) essentially linear, 2) a combination of angular line and shape that either holds to vestiges of traditional spatial composition but with everything simplified and flattened or creates a richly complex almost puzzle-like composition of flattened forms, or 3) utilizes one or more figures with exaggerated parts that completely fill the picture space in what essentially becomes an all-over composition. Within each of these three areas, Picasso uses subjects from his personal life and surroundings, draws from classical and mythical sources (Greek, Roman, and African), or he alludes to art historical sources, notably Spanish (Velazquez and Goya).
The wit, humor, intelligence, inventiveness, restless energy, and breadth of interest exhibited in Picasso’s work can be confusing for the casual observer who might see a few examples of pieces from different periods and be startled to learn they are by the same artist. If, however, one chooses to look deeper, he will find a consummate draftsman and innovative artist who created one of the broadest artistic vocabularies of the 20th century, and who, in spite of his seeming radical departures, never really strayed too far from the long classical tradition from which he sprang.
Posted on 2/22/2013 8:31:55 PM
By Donald Fox
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Today is my dad’s ninety-fifth birthday. He doesn’t make much of it. Maybe he feels a bit guilty about outliving his dad by one year so far. But, truthfully, my dad is not a very demonstrative person. It has been hard for him since his wife, my mother, died in 2004, for they had been married sixty-one years. Amazingly, though, he still lives by himself, still drives, and keeps himself in reasonable shape. He keeps in close contact with family and friends, fellow retired pilots, and fellow former servicemen. He continues to resist getting a computer even when all of his four kids continually urge him to do so. A younger friend of his who owns a small plane lets my dad fly it at least once a year, and this is something he always looks forward to. My dad flew commercially for thirty-three years and five years before that while in the Army Air Corps. His name has been inscribed in the Smithsonian Aviation Hall of Fame. I’m proud of my dad and wish him well. Happy birthday, Pop.
Posted on 2/21/2013
By Donald Fox
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One of my current painting students is a longtime friend and fellow writer. We’ve been in several writing workshops together and were both part of a group of writers that met weekly for well over a year to share work and support each other’s efforts. He has continued to attend workshops with different writing instructors as many painting students attend painting workshops and paint-outs. My friend is using painting to learn more about observing the world in a way different from what writers normally do. Both writers and painters notice details and understand that the well placed detail can add concreteness and believability to a work. Painters, however, often focus on nuances of color and variations in light that might escape an observant writer who would be thinking about mood or atmosphere from a more emotional perspective and how that might be expressed in words.
Recently my friend told me about a current poetry workshop where he is honing a lengthy poem that he’s worked on for some time. One participant, he said, has a strong critical bent and believes that all poetry (not just some but ALL) should be written in heroic couplets. This is the form of many epic translations like the Iliad or the Odyssey. Pairs of iambic pentameter lines are rimed consistently. Any other poetry in this person’s view is just garbage and a waste of time. Basically, this would condemn the vast majority of poetry written since the middle of the nineteenth century. My friend said that this person became so annoyed in the last meeting that he refused to read any more of the assigned poems and stormed out of the room saying that the others could keep their s***. He wasn’t going to waste his time any longer.
Art can have dramatic effect on some people, especially those that are stubborn, close-minded, or profoundly lacking perception. There are many examples of so-called scandalous acts perpetrated on the public by revolutionary and anarchistic artists: Rembrandt’s the Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass, the early exhibited works of the Impressionists, Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, or others. Most of these works have become classic in their own right, at least when viewed from the long lens of art history. In hindsight we may even wonder why certain paintings were considered so upsetting. A mind that deals in absolutes, however, will not allow itself to accept something contrary to the accepted rules. Anything that does not conform is immediately suspect and often rejected outright. This of course reflects more on the perceiver rather than the perceived.
Posted on 2/20/2013
By Donald Fox
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In my painting classes I attempt to work with students wherever they might be on the pathway of art. Some have done work with other instructors and may have been told a wide array of things to do when making a painting. Some try to mimic the techniques they have been taught or at least shown in the past. The relatively new students I always start off with an overview of basic color, its relationships as revealed by the color wheel, and the essential terms to be familiar with: intensity, temperature, and value.
A few have requested a paint-along from time to time, but these I no longer do. Some students will grasp something right away and become impatient to move to the next step. Others may become bewildered with a particular color mixture or can’t quite work out proportions, and therefore tend to quickly fall behind. It’s not fair for some to have to wait on others or for others to feel extra frustration because they have difficulty keeping up. For these reasons, I don’t do paint-alongs. It is much more meaningful anyway for a student to learn by discovering for themselves what may work or not. I will show them how to solve certain problems or make suggestions of ways to interpret something. If they really get stuck, I’ll help them mix a few colors or show them alternatives for applying paint, but I never say this is what you should always do – that is, with one exception. I do tell everyone to always put out a full palette of colors at the beginning of each painting session and put the colors in the same order each time. The colors are like notes on a keyboard and should be in the same place each time – I use the natural order of the color spectrum. This reinforces the concept of color relationships.
People come to art with different levels of skill and experience. They have different desires and motivation for what they do or don’t so. I won’t push them in a direction they may be unwilling to go. I will help them build on their skills, interests, and desire to achieve. How any one gets to a place of completion may look very different from another, but all of us use the same colors, work with shapes, and make compositions that more or less achieve what we set out to accomplish. There is no one secret formula or one special process that guarantees success.
Today, at the beginning of class, I demonstrated beginning a painting and working it up to s level of allover integration that could stand alone as a sketch or be the basis for a more complete painting with additional refinement. I began with a previously prepared warm-toned canvas for the landscape subject. Personally, I like to eliminate all the white canvas either by toning it or immediately blocking in color to cover everything as quickly as possible. It is very difficult to see accurate color and value against white: therefore I eliminate the white right away. Next I mixed half a dozen basic colors in lights and darks that I would use to establish essential shapes in the composition. I then drew about half a dozen lines with a brush and blue paint (simply for contrast) that identified large shapes being careful of placement and proportion. This included a building (angular geometry) and tree forms (natural shapes) to divide the space. Using the mixed colors, I then loosely brushed color into appropriate areas. I stressed the importance of the dark values to create contrast, a sense of illumination from the light source, and the initial carving of the space.
Along with the explanation of what I was doing and why, the demo took about twenty minutes. Questions followed, and that extended the time, for some students do not work in this manner. I reiterated that what I demonstrated was simply one possible approach to beginning a painting. Its advantages are, first, working from a toned ground both harmonizes and emphasizes the basic colors. Second, a careful drawing is not necessary as long as attention is paid to proportion and location. Third, the darks quickly establish the direction of light and activate the space. Fourth, the basis for color interaction and further development is set up early. The paint can be loosely and rapidly applied, which makes the image lively and interesting. Finally, from this point there are still many possible choices for resolution.
Many students generally like to see alternatives to what they may normally do especially when what they may be doing doesn’t always work. I think it important, however, that they choose the alternative rather than be forced to do something a particular way. Given time, nearly all students will find their own way, and that is the best path of all.
Posted on 2/19/2013
By Donald Fox
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This coming weekend will be the opening of Picasso Black and White at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Picasso is one of those artists that some love and many hate. That would be the work and not necessarily the man although I have heard arguments against his work because of the man himself. There is a strong erotic theme in much of his work, and his poor treatment of women is well known. Certainly there are dozens of other artists (or politicians, merchants, and men generally) that have mistreated women. Some women could be criticized for their treatment of men, but that’s fodder for another conversation.
As an artist, Picasso is one of the great innovators of modern art. The breadth of his work as evidenced in his periods of stylistic productivity in itself is remarkable, and rather than turn his back on earlier traditions as many abstractionists did, he took traditional painting in several new directions. His work is always emotional and filled with personal expression, culled as it was from the world around him. His work is also filled with references to the history of art in Europe and Africa.
Though he is not one of my favorite artists like Cezanne or Pissarro or Matisse, I recognize the power of Picasso’s work. I don’t, like many, complain that after a time he just repeated himself. Rather, I think that he created his personal artistic vocabulary and used his prodigious skills until the end of his life, sometimes revisiting ideas that had been explored before. Many artists have done the same. It is one thing to paint nudes as a young man and quite another to paint them in old age. Experience and understanding would be very different as would one’s emotional response.
Many of Picasso’s abstractions are not among my favorites. I prefer the elegant line drawings of his classical period. Like the work of any artist, I choose to consider piece by piece rather than wholesale. Some of Picasso’s interpretations of earlier work by Velazquez or Ingres are quite interesting. His incorporation of African art forms is also intriguing in many paintings. The Houston show focuses, as the title suggests, solely on work done in black and white. I’ve seen the catalog, and there is an extensive selection of paintings, drawings, and graphic work. I look forward to writing about the exhibit after having seen it.
Posted on 2/18/2013
By Donald Fox
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Albrecht Durer - Praying Hands
When a student sits down to write a paper on either a chosen or assigned topic, the first step should always be to take an inventory on what is known about the topic. This is part of a process called brainstorming, which can be approached in a variety of ways. Specific techniques like freewriting (writing continuously without editing whatever comes to mind about the topic), asking questions (like the journalist’s questions of who, what, when, where, why, and how?), making some sort of bubble or spider diagram to explore associations related to the topic, or just making a list of whatever comes to mind regarding the topic can all be effective ways to create ideas. One can also research the topic to find specific information and examples. Brainstorming is done to generate ideas so that the writer has something to actually say about the topic.
Visual artists may do similar forms of brainstorming in the process of creating art. Looking back through art history, anyone can easily find examples of drawings and sketches that painters did in preparation for important paintings. These preparatory studies were (and are for those who still use them) a way of working out ideas before committing them to canvas. Drawn and painted studies were part of the painting process for hundreds of years. They tend to represent the artist’s first thoughts about a subject, and sometimes studies might show a progression of ideas as a major work slowly takes shape. One example, the very famous set of praying hands, a pen and ink drawing by Albrecht Dürer, was originally done as a study for the hands of a praying apostle, which was part of the inside design of the Heller altarpiece created around 1509. The original painting was destroyed in a fire but later replaced with a copy by another artist. The Dürer drawing, however, has been reproduced countless times as posters and used in all kinds of religious illustrations even today. It is one case where the study became more popularly known that the work for which it was done.
Notebooks and sketchbooks are places where many artists jot down visual ideas, whether observed or imagined, much like a writer might make entries into a journal. Artists of all kinds are frequently thinking about their art, making notes, working out ideas, and generally being open to what is popularly called inspiration. For most artists, however, inspiration is cultivated through some process of continual brainstorming. They don’t sit around waiting for good ideas. They, like the gardener, plant seeds, continuously nurture and cultivate them, and harvest the results when the ideas come to fruition. Individual artists may follow slightly different cultivation processes, but their work habits include time for brainstorming as well as active creating.
Whatever I may be doing, there is a part of me that is attuned to creative possibilities. Most artists I have known have said basically the same thing. Creative thinking is something that is not easily shut off. Of course, not every creative idea is a great one, but the practiced artist knows how to sift through to find those with the greatest viability. Brainstorming is followed by sorting and then organizing ideas into coherent and unified entities that artists call works of art. In one very real sense, artists are actively thinking ahead.
Posted on 2/17/2013 4:25:31 PM
By Donald Fox
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Here in Houston it is the middle of February and while cold and snow continue to pepper much of the north and northeast, it feels like springtime in southern Texas. In the back yard today I notice many plants beginning to put out tiny green shoots. Vines and brambles already have grown up into trees and bushes. A rose bloomed on one plant before I had the chance to prune it. Even though there still are bare trees and brown leaves that have collected against the back fence, there also is evidence all over of spring beginning to show its face.
This is an interesting time to observe many wild places in the surrounding area. Thickets that during summer are impenetrable are still like fragile scaffoldings of twisted umbers and siennas. From a distance they look like delicate nets strung haphazardly across open spaces that reveal landscapes beyond. Within a few months, these areas will be dense veils of greens with a few accents of reddish brown. The landscape will be hidden until sometime in October.
If one could visit these areas on a daily basis, he or she could observe the gradual filling in of the open tapestries. The warp and woof of leaves will slowly fill the spaces as branches and tendrils intertwine into a thick mat of impenetrable color. Even though this process is gradual, usually it seems instantaneous since one area may not be seen for several weeks, and the change appears to be sudden and dramatic. At least I can observe some of these changes in my yard and in vacant lots as I drive to and from work every day. To get out from the city, however, will only happen from one weekend to the next. Even within a week’s time, the change can be startling. Many people do not notice these subtle changes. For them there is barrenness and then there is fecundity.
Gardeners are one exception. Gardeners love to see the changes happen as much as painters, maybe more so. It is a wonderful experience to watch seedlings grow from day to day. With many plants there is a slow process for days when the seedlings are very delicate and changing quite gradually. Once transplanted, however, if the plants are not disturbed by insects or animals, the growth spurts can be very swift, particularly when the plants are well mulched and given rich nutrients. This natural progression is impressive and instructive for the attendant gardener. Certain plants need particular care at different stages of development, and the wise gardener will pay attention to those needs in order for the plants to flourish and to bear healthy fruit.
Painters and artists make their own processes that will determine the best outcome for the work as it progresses. Some stages are slow and deliberate. Care must be taken to ensure that paint is properly applied and allowed to dry. Other stages might be executed swiftly, colors blended into one another or layers of paint dragged one over the other. Intention and purpose will guide the artist in making appropriate choices. Of course, the artist must know the materials and tools and use them to coax the image from wherever it exists, as observation, as feeling, or as imagined concept. Insight, patience, and understanding are important requirements for the successful expression, and nature, whether observed on the outside or felt on the inside, can be, as so many have noted before, an excellent teacher.
Posted on 2/16/2013 1:35:54 PM
By Donald Fox
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Goya - Portrait of Infante Don Francisco de Paulo Antonio
In the current exhibit of works from the Prado being shown at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, there is a portrait study by Francisco de Goya of the Infante Don Francisco de Paula Antonio, who was the younger son of Charles IV of Spain for whom Goya was the court painter. The portrait is striking for several reasons, which is not surprising since Goya is often considered the last of the Old Masters and the first of the Modernist painters. The five-year-old child is presented in formal dress and portrait attitude, standing (although the child is portrayed from just above the knees up), weight on the right foot, the right arm extended toward the frame, and the head facing forward in three-quarter profile while the eyes look directly at the viewer. Many children’s portraits, especially of royalty, are often idealized, but Goya’s is directly and carefully observed and shows the child as a distinct person.
This portrait study, even though the child is clothed in turn of the century (1800) royal dress, has a distinctly modern air about it. When I first came across it in the display gallery, I thought it was a modern painting by someone emulating Goya’s brushwork and style. It is exhibited on a wall with work by several 20th century Spanish painters and easily fits in. The painting is approximately 30” x 24” and is painted on a brownish orange ground. Only the head, upper torso, part of the extended right arm, and the background have been completed. The lower portion of the torso and legs and the right wrist and hand are unpainted ground. Still, like in many modern paintings, there is no feeling of incompleteness; rather the ground feels integrated and perhaps even emphasizing not only the painter’s process but also the flatness of the canvas and the ironic relationship between the ephemeral quality of life and the timeless intent of art.
In traditional Spanish portraiture, the same kind of standing pose would be used – weight on the right foot, the right arm extended and the right hand grasping some icon of position or power. The Infante has no power as yet, and the hand is not represented. The boy’s red tunic with wide lace collar is cut diagonally from right shoulder to left waist by a blue and white sash with cross representing the Order of Carlos III, an order into which the young prince was born. Below the sash nothing is painted though the form of hips and legs are suggested by the painted background. It is easy from a modernist perspective to impose meaning on all of this, but we are looking at a study even though the painting may seem totally complete to our eyes.
As a portraitist, Goya did not flatter his sitters, royal or not. His royal portraits especially were criticized as representing ordinary people in formal dress with certain insignia of power. One painter suggested a family portrait by Goya resembled a baker and his family that had just won the lottery. We can think, though, of portraits of ancient rulers that represented people rather than stereotypes: the bust of Nefertiti, depictions of Ikhnaton, or images of Tutankhamen. These representations defied thousands of years of ancient Egyptian artistic principles. Titian, Rembrandt and Velazquez, from all of whom Goya was a direct stylistic descendant, also painted portraits that emphasized a kind of psychological realism over flattery and idealization.
There is so much more that can be said about Goya as a seminal painter in the movement towards modernism, but this one small painting that may well have never left his studio in his lifetime demonstrates that link between past and present as well as some of the ones for which Goya is most noted. Houston is very lucky to have an extended visit with this and other insightful works from the Prado.
Posted on 2/15/2013 6:35:35 PM
By Donald Fox
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Many considerations go into the making of a painting or any work of art. Choice of materials, point of view, inclusion or deletion of specific elements, emotional response of the artist, intended emotional response of the viewer, possible message or idea the artist wishes to communicate, spontaneity of the creative act or the deliberate planning and execution of the work, and the overall vision of the particular artist. Some of these choices can be central to the art work and others are supports to the larger idea. Training, experience, and understanding of the artist will guide whatever choices may be made in the creative process.
It is always interesting to look at the work of an artist over the life of his or her career and see the changes that have occurred as evidenced in the work. Most any book that focuses on an artist will show the development of both skill and commitment to the work that covers the artist’s life. The early work, usually considered immature (not to be read as necessarily bad or unenlightened), will often show promise, and in some cases evidence predictions of what is to come. Other artists may make dramatic breaks with early work as the result of some intervening person or event that changes that artist’s thinking and gives him or her new insight into what art is at a very personal level.
The amazing thing about art as it is practiced today is that there is such variety of expression and interpretation. Even the definition of what art is cannot be precisely pinned down. In the past, from the earliest civilizations well into the nineteenth century, art tended to have a broadly accepted theoretical basis that was part of the prevailing culture. Now we have cultural splinter groups and counter-culture groups or individuals that create a kind of anti-aesthetic to whatever may be the prevailing norm. This leads to lots of confusion and certainly a lot of disagreement among artists and within the larger culture that either embraces them or rejects them. Add to this the increasing commercialization of art and aesthetic ideas, and the quest for artistic purity, if such a thing actually exists, takes on almost mythic proportions. Does the artist take his skill and create for the marketplace? Or, does the artist ignore the market and focus solely on his or her inner vision? Or, does the artist use that vision to create art that is so new and unique that it almost automatically creates its own market niche and its own demand? These kinds of questions are useful for artists to ask themselves from time to time.
Posted on 2/14/2013
By Donald Fox
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Most people have heard the expression to “read between the lines.” Usually this means that someone is suggesting something that is not directly stated. The topic may be too controversial and therefore possibly incriminating in some way for the speaker/writer. The topic might be embarrassing, and the author doesn’t want to look foolish. Possibly the speaker thinks the meaning is obvious, and it’s a waste of time to say it openly. Whatever the case, there is important meaning that is not being stated openly, and in some cases that meaning is the most important. The saying can also apply to a person’s actions and to other kinds of visual messages. The lines can be metaphorical rather than something that actually has been written.
In the visual arts, especially painting, lines are employed to indicate direction, to create borders or boundaries, to separate one thing from another, to enclose an area, to divide space, and to actually define the contours of objects. Lines can carry emotional content by suggesting certainty, anger, calm, or upset. Lines can have weight within a composition. The thickness or thinness of lines plus their dark or light value may give them more weight. The painter or draftsman manipulates lines as part of the expressive toolkit to create an array of effects that indicate form, function, and meaning.
Lines may suggest solid objects by enclosing them with delineated contours. The space on the inside is the object. The open space between objects can be just as important for it always shares at least one edge with the object on the two-dimensional surface even though surrounding space may be suggested. Obviously, the artist cannot represent the space behind an object, but context clues create the illusion that the space exists for the viewer. Or we could say that the viewer assumes the space to be there behind the object being represented.
It is also true that through the psychological effect of closure even partial lines that might indicate corners of a square can create the illusion of one. The square itself is not fully drawn, but the viewer interprets what is seen as being a fully enclosed square. Artists employ this idea all the time through carefully selected combinations of lines that may create quite complex shapes and compositions of shapes. This is particularly true in drawing and other graphic work since in painting line is often subservient to colored shape.
In effect, though, viewers are constantly reading between the lines of most compositions in both literal and figurative ways. They literally make connections among the various lines the artist has used in creating the work as they interpret what they are seeing just on a fundamental level. When they intuit or analytically grasp the implied meaning, the subtext, or the metaphorical content, viewers are then interpreting at the deeper level of appreciation that art so often is noted for, the level of achievement that artists strive for.
Line is a powerful tool in the hands of an accomplished artist. It can be of great value to the viewer to study line and consider its effects when appreciating any artwork that utilizes it.
Posted on 2/13/2013
By Donald Fox
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When I was growing up, my mother taught her sons to do various domestic chores. As kids, my older brother and I did a lot of work around the house both inside and out. When my dad was home (he traveled as a pilot), he had many yard projects for us as well, so my brother and I, and later my younger brother to a lesser degree, learned by doing. We learned about sorting clothes, how to iron shirts and pants, how to mend torn garments and sew on buttons. We learned to cook a variety of dishes – I make some awesome stews – and we learned that cleaning up followed any sort of project. Following processes became second nature. If you wanted good results, you followed the appropriate steps to achieve them. Thoughtful organization made most any project easier to work through.
Being a creative activity, painting is often not thought of as a process except in the most general way. There seems to be the attitude that if something is done according to the same steps that the creative expression is eliminated. I’ve found that through many years of painting that there are various ways to think about this idea. Most painters have one or more processes that they follow depending on whether they are doing direct or indirect painting, working in one session or completing a painting over many sessions. These can apply to any style of painting and also whether the intention of the artist is for representation or abstraction.
Firstly, every artist is different and will have developed techniques and steps that work to his or her strengths. Secondly, the actual steps followed to create a painting can be quite varied. A painter may work from a toned ground, sketch an image or not, block in large areas of color or not, refine an image by breaking large shapes into smaller and smaller areas of color that eventually create the image. Another artist may make a careful drawing with charcoal or brush and then layer color within the lines, so to speak. There may be a wide range of variations on these few suggested steps, but ultimately the painter is balancing a number of essential design elements and refining their relationships to make a satisfying image: shape, proportion, placement, color, value, and whatever else is appropriate to the subject being painted.
The process is about organizing the pictorial elements, and most experienced artists begin organizing with the first few strokes of the brush. The initial focus may be on line, but soon that will shift to concern over colored shapes. Students gradually learn the process of organizing the picture space, but more often than not their initial attempts tend to focus on parts rather than the whole. Over time, they, like the experienced artist, tend to think about the whole from the outset. It is certainly easier to create and maintain unity from the beginning than to try to cobble it together later in the painting process.
In representational painting, many students do not see underlying patterns of shapes that are created by light-dark contrasts. These can be observed on faces and figures, in arrangements of objects on a table, in objects within a room, or in the seemingly haphazard array of natural shapes in a landscape. Making a series of tonal drawings or value studies can help to focus on pattern rather than detail. Serious students will take the time to do these kinds of studies; the dabblers will continue to dabble. These underlying patterns, though, are why many instructors urge students to locate the darks early in the painting process. As the range of values and colors are refined, the image, space, and light will emerge with increasing clarity. There is no great mystery here although seeing the image come to life still gives most painters a thrill, and that emergence can almost feel magical even as it’s predictable. Approaches may vary, but organization is the key.
Posted on 2/12/2013
By Donald Fox
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC), in an effort to streamline what many consider has become a cumbersome series of sporting events, has voted to eliminate wrestling from future Olympics. It is interesting that so-called sports like ping pong or professional ones like basketball, soccer, and tennis remain included. In spite of the amateur origin of the Olympic games and that wrestling was one of the original sports, the games have become very big business, mostly for advertisers and networks that cover the games since host countries very often lose money because of the huge expense incurred in building the venues. Never mind that fans from all over the world look to the Olympics as a showcase for the spirit of cooperation and friendly competition. The Olympics like so many other facets of life have been hijacked by politics and money.
It seems that almost any human endeavor is tainted these days by some form of corruption or incompetence. From religion to politics to sports to the arts, there is scandal, cronyism, mismanagement, featherbedding, or lack of concern for the public at large. Big business is not the only bogey man at work in the public arena. Certainly we all have our favorites and our biases. Nationalistic fervor or evangelical attitudes lurk behind many decisions in the arts and in sport. Since the Russian revolution, the arts in Russia (the Soviet Union and then the singular state) have been tightly controlled by the collective guidelines. In other European countries, art was pretty much governed by the church and/or the academy. Sometimes their oversight could be just as strict as any Soviet committee.
Art and artists are by no means exempt from the taint of money or politics. Controversies have swirled around the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States for years. Public broadcasting and other public art forums have been attacked by government, liberals and conservatives, for generations. The rift between traditional and progressive art forms has widened as the result of many choices made by the NEA and even by major museums around the country. However, if culture is made up of all things within its purview, then culture is far more inclusive that any segment that might be chosen by an appointed few. Who was empowered to choose the few to begin with?
Art today is too broad in concept and possibility to be narrowed down into select categories that reflect only one small segment of what may be termed politically correct. The marketplace may give us the lowest priced products, but it doesn’t necessarily give us the best ones. Politics and money have become too interdependent, and the loser more often than not is the individual citizen whether artist, sports enthusiast, or hopeful Olympian.
Posted on 2/11/2013
By Donald Fox
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The urge to put things in their place is an interesting concept to contemplate. Perhaps it is obvious to some that our desire to organize comes from the experience of the space around us. Either we felt so challenged by the seeming disarray that is in wild nature, that we huddled within small confines as a means of establishing security both physically and mentally, or we were imprinted by the felt and sometimes observed natural order that exists in the shapes of things – trees, flowers, rocks – and the apparent order that is created by one thing occupying its particular space. Sometimes a multitude of similar things marks space differently: a stand of trees, a patch of weeds, a trench carved by flowing water – all of these can make defined space, which can be compact and dense or spread over a large area with gaps between one object and another.
The development of mathematics probably came from similar experience. Either movement of sun or moon measured the day or night. There was the passage of time, one day after another accumulating in the seasons of the year. Objects or animals came singly, in pairs, and groups. It was natural to count out things as well as the intervals between things. Differentiation is important to both quantity and to spatial perception. Decisions regarding division of food, resources, labor, or space would have reinforced early mathematics along with accurate observation. When man set his mind to build things, models of efficiency would have quickly evolved if they were not already observed in natural forms. Geometry is abundant in nature, from orbs in the sky to honeycombs, segmented creatures, patterns of leaves and flowers, or shells found along the sea’s edge.
The ability to differentiate is wired into our brains. Our lives literally depended on this ability to distinguish one thing from another. Nature uses this principle to give advantage and protection. Many predators blend with their surroundings in order to hunt successfully. Likewise, many that might be prey also have some camouflage protection from potential predators. The survival skills of humans developed through a superior brain ultimately put us at advantage over all others. We also began to use these increasing mental skills to build, to divide our world into regular patterns based on calculated geometry rather than that naturally created. And over time we turned our skills to creative thinking that made a mental world as complex and sometimes seemingly as real as that which could be observed directly. Interestingly, it is our ability to differentiate that has empowered us to mimic nature’s creative processes in the realm of art, art being a mental construct that may have originated in our experience of nature but is no longer confined to it.
We, as human beings, are pattern makers. We perceive patterns in the world and in the universe that are created by natural forces. Our physical bodies function and sustain themselves because of the organized patterns within, including those intricate patterns inside the brain. We give expression to the essence that we are in the art that we create.
Posted on 2/10/2013 6:30:18 PM
By Donald Fox
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Cezanne
The antipathy that sometimes exists between two factions of painters, the realists and the abstractionists, when looked at more closely seems like conflict based on false premises. The realist tradition is, of course, the older tradition in painting by far. Its roots could be traced all the way back to cave painting, except that for thousands of years while art was developing among various ancient civilizations, cave paintings were unknown. Their influence had no bearing on art history development. It is only in hindsight that similarities in expressive drawing and depiction can be related to other work. Some modern artists, however, have been influenced by these more primitive works after their discovery. Also, according to written observations, the painting of some Greek painters was very highly developed for its realism, but again, there are issues, for the work itself no longer exists and was even gone from view at the time of the Renaissance. These chronological problems notwithstanding, the tradition of realism does have over five hundred years of fairly consistent development which continues into the modern era right up to today.
Abstract painting is basically a modern invention. It might be possible to show that some modern painters were influenced by abstract designs found in primitive cultures of the past, but it is just as easy to document the influence of many realist painters on the modern abstractionists. Like his classical predecessors, Pablo Picasso reinterpreted paintings by past masters like Velazquez and Rembrandt. Picasso also borrowed forms from African tribal sculpture and painting. Other early modernist painters – we could make a long list of names like Matisse, Braque, Kandinsky, or Mondrian – began as realist painters, many of them working in impressionistic styles, before developing their trademark forms of abstraction. For them, exploration of the picture space took precedence over reproduction of observations based on their surroundings.
The seeds of this kind of personal exploration of the picture space could be traced to thirteenth and fourteenth century manuscript illuminations, to the early experiments with linear perspective, or the development of various color systems. Every artist added something personal to these different developments, and for several hundred years as the academies codified the refinements of perspective, rectangle division, the use of chiaroscuro, and color contrasts, we see differences between artists more in terms of style rather than subject matter. Many painted the same subjects, again perhaps influenced by the dictates of the academy or the church, but each interpreted them differently. Ultimately, some artists’ interpretations became increasingly radical deviations from the norm. In his time, Cezanne was often criticized for the crudeness of his technique by conservative critics whereas many younger painters began to understand what he was attempting to do as he altered observed reality to fit particular subjective design concepts.
Abstract expressionism, insofar as paint application, was presaged by some impressionist techniques and those by earlier work of Titian or Hals or Rembrandt or others who worked with impasto and expressive brushwork. We could argue that geometric abstraction grew out of Renaissance perspective and that from the mathematical design principles of the Ancient Greeks. Most serious artists are very much aware of art history and what came before. It was not always a rejection of earlier concepts, but often a reinterpretation of them and extension of them in new directions.
I suppose artists could be described as more conservative or liberal in their approach to art. These are certainly not political labels by any means. Artists might choose to follow a disciplined, traditional approach to image and technique, or they might embrace exploration and spontaneity as their guiding principles. There might also be crossovers between the two extremes, and whatever direction any one decides to go, there is richness and diversity within the larger context of art that keeps it alive and relevant from generation to generation
Posted on 2/9/2013 10:35:01 PM
By Donald Fox
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When I was a kid growing up in the 50s, time was something that seemed luxurious and lazily slow. Walking to school was the norm, but about fourth or fifth grade I began riding my bike and this began a long process of time acceleration. Television was in its infancy, and I don’t remember us having one until I was about ten years old. News was printed in newspapers and magazines or read over the radio. Most movie theaters – I became enamored of film at an early age – played newsreels and cartoons before each showing of a feature film. The newsreels in particular were interesting because they highlighted events that had occurred all over the world although sometimes weeks or months previously. Today we get news several times a day on television, round the clock on cable, and by the minute on the internet. The changes I have seen in communications in my lifetime have been phenomenal.
I remember, though, being captivated by movies set in ancient times: Egypt or Greece or Rome. I very well remember history lessons from school about the Trojan War, the conquests of Alexander the Great, or Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon. What my imagination failed to grasp, however, was the tremendous challenge any of these kingdoms or rulers faced as the result of slow communication. Any sort of foreign campaign would have kept the ruler away from his home and capitol for years at a time. Leaders like Alexander and some of the Egyptian pharaohs actually led their armies into battle. Roman rulers sent out their armies commanded by trusted generals. Even so, for months at a time and often longer, no one at home would know for certain what might be happening abroad, and for the troops, vice-versa. That such vast empires were built that could last generations was truly remarkable.
Today we are overwhelmed with information, so much so that one can easily do nothing but collect information ad infinitum. Many do spend countless hours on Facebook and social media, and many professionals make careers of information gathering. On occasion we see regimes rise and fall within a matter of days rather than years as in the past. So much has become time sensitive that it is easy to lose track of the longer rhythms of life’s changes. Even the seasons seem compressed, tied as they are to holiday commercialism.
Temporal and chronological perspective and awareness, in spite of the abundance of information at our fingertips, is frequently lacking within the general culture. Many students coming out of high school today know little or nothing about the Viet Nam War let alone either World War, the American Civil War, or the Revolutionary War. Some of these students as they mature will educate themselves on these and other matters, but the information they access via internet and sites like Wikipedia or online encyclopedias won’t necessarily be accurate and certainly not complete. Our hurry sometimes makes us sloppy.
Every generation has its challenges, not the least of which is maintaining some sense of continuity with the past. Everything cannot continually begin anew. There has to be knowledge and technological know-how that is passed forward. Educators understand this and continually design curricula that incorporate history and precedence into the various disciplines. The historical concept of time is important to preserve. For example, it is gratifying to see so many develop interest in antiques, even from a commercial standpoint, for that also requires understanding of where something came from and why it might have value. Strong family units help to maintain connection to family histories and those readily tie into larger histories of place and culture. The artifacts of family and culture sometimes become the central focus of artists as an important expressive subject matter.
If we consider the geological time scale of our planet, the segment representing human life is a mere blip on the vast arc of time. It would do us well to pause every time we have an opportunity to look into the night sky and see the hazy band of stars that is a sideways glimpse into our home galaxy. We might remind ourselves that all we hold dear from our limited vantage point will disappear within less than a fraction of the time it takes for the light from any one of those stars to reach our planet. What we see in those twinkling stars may no longer exist because of the incredible distance between us and the source. The light may still be traveling even though the source itself is gone.
In a way this is similar to what art does for us. It serves as a light that shines forth from the artist, the culture, or the civilization that produced it. We appreciate its beauty, whatever message it may contain, connect to its emotional investment, and the sense of human value that created it. We see something of ourselves reflected in the mirror of art, the mirror of our past, and the mirror of the stars. All we need do is to take the time to look.
Posted on 2/8/2013 5:43:55 PM
By Donald Fox
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A colleague of mine at the school where I teach is teaching a criminal justice class in criminal law. This is an introductory course that looks broadly at the criminal justice system, questions regarding its function, its fairness, possible inequities, and certain moral issues. Most of her students are young, not too long out of high school. To entice them, she assigned a cinematic look at the criminal justice system and asked each student to choose one of three movies to watch: Anatomy of a Murder, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Twelve Angry Men. None of the students had heard of any of the films including To Kill a Mockingbird. That one, especially, is surprising since the book version has been on high school reading lists all over the country for at least thirty years. Many schools also use the film in conjunction with the novel. Even more surprising, though, is that students released audible groans and were quite indignant when told that the films were black and white rather than color.
This is a generation of students that have grown up with color television, color photography, and mostly Technicolor films. They might come across something in black and white on the internet, but they would immediately by-pass that for something more colorful. My colleague persisted, though, told the students they would enjoy the films, and they, the students, begrudgingly gave in knowing that they would only have to view one film. Because of copyright issues, the films couldn’t be shown in class, so each student was allowed to take a copy home for viewing, which they did on a rotating basis. Their responses were overwhelmingly positive, so much so that each student wanted to see the other two films as well.
Any film buff will know that these three films are considered classics, and each, though slightly dated, deals with moral and ethical issues related to crime and the criminal justice system in unique ways. My point, however, has to do with perception and bias. All the students had preconceived ideas about “old” movies, especially ones not even in color. They thought them outdated technology, too old to be relevant to modern society, and lacking sophistication (though they probably wouldn’t use that word exactly). What they found were stories that were engrossing, compelling, and captivating in spite of the technological handicap.
Art has a way of being timeless, certainly some more so than others. There are lots of films that are trite and simplistic and directly focused on an immature audience. This is true today as it was fifty years ago. We could say the same for literature and other art forms as well. On the other hand, we can find examples of work from ancient times that still are relevant and stunning today. In almost any artistic period we might choose to look at, we could easily find work that is engaging and impressive to the most sophisticated and discerning modern audience. Styles can change, dress can change, and subject matter can change, but the impulse to create and to express something about the experience of life and its meaning are just as important today as it was a thousand years ago. Humans may change in dramatic ways outwardly, but inside we generally have the same desires and fears and curiosities as those of our ancestors. It can be a useful exercise to set aside biases in order to experience something outside of our usual frame of reference. Many artists strive to do this, for they understand that this is a powerful way to learn and grow. It also can impact positively on one’s own artwork.
Posted on 2/7/2013
By Donald Fox
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If you live in a city or similar man-made environment, you probably are very used to tuning things out. There is so much input that assaults all the senses, not just the visual or auditory, that without our selective attention we would be in constant overwhelm. We may, in fact, be in overwhelm and ignore its effects as best we can in order to function at some modicum level of effectiveness. Probably many of us – maybe even most of us – are drawn to the arts because with them we are given constructs that have defined limits. Stories, whether written or visual in the form of literature or film, have specific beginnings, middles, and ends. Everything is carefully structured by the author for maximum emotional and/or intellectual effect. We enter the story and exit it at specific points in time. It won’t matter if there are flashbacks or if the narrative proceeds other than chronologically because we perceive what the intended structure is and accept that for that particular work. We get the sense of completion with any work of art.
Life has its own kinds of organizational structures, but these are not always so easily defined. There is much overlap, and because so many things are happening at once, we can only focus attention on a limited number at any given moment in time. When we go into the imaginative or virtual space of a work of art, we generally lose awareness of time, our surroundings, and possibly ourselves. In the “real” world, we create and carry with us our limitations as we do focus on whatever we deem important and/or necessary in the moment. Even though we may have broadened our so-called connectivity with the larger world through cyberspace, we still can only take in so much of the cyber-world within a given time frame. Our attention span has not changed, only the input that comes into it.
In a recent article in Smithsonian Magazine, noted Talking Heads David Byrne discusses music and what he sees as the necessity to sometimes take a break from it. Music, being art, is very much a construct, and some musical artists have tried to understand and express the musicality of life itself. Other artists, both visual and performing, have also attempted to make art that expresses some truth about life and recreates a living or life-like experience. Performance art, street theater, improvisational art, action painting, process-focused art, and other not so easily-defined expressions have been attempts to get at some truth about life. Composer John Cage incorporated random sounds into some of his work to reflect the randomness associated with everyday existence. He incorporated silence into pieces to reflect the pauses that occur in natural rhythms, the space between heartbeats, for example, or the pause between one breath and another.
Some musicians (and visual artists) looked for hidden rhythms in the cacophony of civilization’s noise. Others noticed that in nature, there also is constant sound that follows a kind of organization created by the local environment. Painters will readily understand that any randomly selected area of a thicket, grove of trees, or bend in a stream can offer up a range of possible built-in structural formats. There are shapes, forms, light and dark contrasts that will be noticed and used in the construction of a painting. One could even paint a given area within almost any field of vision, paint it exactly as perceived (if that is even possible), and some kind of organization would be represented. This might not give a good composition, but one could create an argument for having represented a natural order. Even here, though, the artist has picked and chosen what was represented. One cannot show everything seen nor can one record every sound heard. A camera cannot perform this task with light any better than a microphone can with sound.
We have to edit our experience. We cannot, as the Buddhist sage might suggest, pay attention to everything all the time, although we might try. We have a need for order, and we have a need for space. Art is one of the ways that we order our experience to express how we might feel about the world but also to better understand the word in which we live. Sometimes we utilize light, but we also need dark. We enjoy sound, but we also need silence. Perhaps we are already primed by nature to prefer certain kinds of rhythms and structures. Some have said that we are nature observing itself. We may also be nature expressing itself through the art that we create.
Posted on 2/6/2013
By Donald Fox
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Driving in to my art class this morning, I listened to NPR’s Morning Edition as I do every Wednesday morning. A short piece on an amusingly named psychological phenomenon caught my attention and gave credence to something that I have noticed with some students. Many people have built things from prefabricated kits. I used to put together model airplanes and ships when I was a kid. I always took great care, but sometimes when painting stripes or insignia instead of using decals, I might apply shaky lines rather than ones razor straight. Still, I was proud of my accomplishment and would find ways to hide or just ignore the flaws. I had succumbed to the Ikea effect, which was not an observed phenomenon when I was a kid. Now, however, as Ikea has taken hold on large portions of American demographics, it is a well-observed phenomenon that people tend to be overly attached to something they might build even though it is less than perfect.
Partly, this is a self-esteem issue, particularly for those who tend to think of themselves as incompetent when it comes to making things. Assembling a piece of furniture, though, is a specific process that ends with something having actually been built (assembled) even though the individual did not create the piece from start to finish. It may have flaws, be slightly crooked, or have irregularities of fit, yet the builder feels great pride in the accomplishment. This is known as the Ikea effect, an amusing if somewhat satirical name. The suggestion is that the builder is blinded by the creation and cannot see it for the flawed construction that it is. Of course, there are those that do have exceptional skill in assembling furniture or some similar kind of task, and they just seem to have supreme confidence in what they do. They are good with their hands and may, in fact, be proud of their skill. They expect to succeed and generally do. This sense of pride is different from the bumbler that manages to get through all the steps on the instruction sheet without leaving out any parts or doing serious damage.
Anyone who teaches art probably sees versions of the Ikea effect on a regular basis. There is the challenge of giving constructive criticism without bursting the creator’s Ikea bubble. Many students, of course, seek out criticism that will help them improve, but there are always some that resist any suggestion to make changes or to try a different technique. They created the piece, and they stick with what they have done as though it were a masterwork. They do not see the harsh color, the overstated values, the awkward drawing, or other flaws that are evident to anyone else. Some of these students will create elaborate explanations for why a part of the painting is different from the rest. They will claim artistic license or personal interpretation as an attempt to explain away the flaws. It is almost as if their self-esteem is on steroids.
As a teacher I want students to feel good about their work, and I want to guide them through the challenging process of improving their perception and their skills. The Ikea effect, though, can sometimes get in the way, especially if they get too caught up in thinking their achievements far beyond where they actually are. On occasion I might use personal examples from my own learning process to illustrate how everyone goes through various stages of development, but the stages aren’t necessarily the same for everyone. Some may need to spend more time working with color or drawing or proportion. The trick is to find effective ways to demonstrate that for the student. There may, unfortunately, be a bruised ego from time to time – that might be what is needed to move someone forward. I’ve never been an advocate of harsh criticism though I’ve experienced it a few times in the past. Patience generally yields better results in my opinion.
Certainly, making art is not the same as assembling furniture, and I don’t mean to correlate the two. The concept, though, of being blinded by one’s creation does apply to art as to other craft expressions by those not yet steeped in the process. The craftsman, in whatever discipline, is most often dedicated to the process rather than to the end product. The experienced artisan knows that the process will yield the desired result, and he or she will feel best about the result when the greatest amount of care has gone into the process. The justifiable pride experienced then might be dubbed the Master effect.
Posted on 2/5/2013
By Donald Fox
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In the mid-seventies, while still living in North Carolina, I made several yearly visits to Washington, D.C. for art-viewing weekends. I always traveled by train, which was something of a romantic journey in itself. On one of those trips, while visiting the Hirshorn Museum that is part of the Smithsonian, I discovered the work of Yaacov Agam, an Israeli abstract artist who mostly has lived and worked in France. I remember the huge painting/sculpture created with vertical slats of colored metal (like a sideways venetian blind) that would change its coloring and image as the viewer walked from one side to the other. The work was impressive even though not the painterly work to which I was usually drawn. From time to time I would see other examples of his work in other museums or find an article in an art publication that mentioned him. These were pre-internet days, so the accumulation of information was much more time intensive and spread over months or years rather than seconds. Still, whenever I saw other work that was in some fashion kinetic, I always thought back to Agam. One other interesting note that drew him to me was that he had studied with the German artist Johannes Itten, not when he was at the Bauhaus in Weimer but later in Zurich. After 1950 Agam lived and worked mostly in France.
About a year ago I encountered the work of Venezualan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, also widely known for his explorations of color and kinetic art. He was largely influenced by the work of Joseph Albers a one-time student of Johannes Itten while at the Bauhaus where Albers later also taught. There are very strong connections between the color theories espoused by Itten and Albers. Both explored color’s relativity, the influence of one color on another, various chromatic contrasts, and especially color’s spatial effects. Cruz-Diez moved to France and for a number of years split his time between France and Venezuela. He exhibited on occasion with Yaacov Agam and several other artists also exploring the idea of kinetic art.
In my ignorance, I used to think of kinetic art as art that moved like that of Alexander Calder’s mobiles or Jean Tinguely’s extravagant machines. These were works that were widely known but not an area of art that I particularly explored. I was aware of it but not overly interested in it. In spite of that, the impact of Agam’s work lingered in my mind, and seeing a retrospective about a year ago of the work of Cruz-Diez, I was struck by the similarities (and differences) between the two artists. Their connection to German color theory was evident as was their propensity for highly saturated color in their own work. Even more striking, however, is that both artists created kinetic pieces that did not move. The kinetic aspect came from the viewer having to move in relation to the piece to experience its range of dramatic change from one side to the other. A piece that is predominantly red when seen from the left, for example, might be predominantly blue when seen from the right side. Observing the color shifts occur as you walk from side to side is very magical and sensually stimulating. You, the observer, are changing over time while observing the transformation of the artwork. This quote from Agam about his aesthetic applies to either artist: “My intention was to create a work of art which would transcend the visible, which cannot be perceived except in stages, with the understanding that it is a partial revelation and not the perpetuation of the existing. My aim is to show what can be seen within the limits of possibility which exists in the midst of coming into being.”
One thing that I have come to love about both artists’ work is that as viewer/participant I am pushed to questioning my own perception even as I experience a stunning display of color virtuosity that comes not from physical mixing of color but from ocular mixing within my own field of vision. I observe what is out there but am very aware that my experience hinges on the subjective appreciation of what is observed. Other painting might allow me to appreciate brushwork or how well an image is represented. These color spatial constructions seem to occupy a different dimension altogether. These two artists demonstrate that color is beyond beautiful – it is sensuous, magical, and transformative.
Posted on 2/4/2013
By Donald Fox
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Back in the sixties the concept of performance art came into being. So-called happenings were often collaborative performances, sometimes spontaneous and sometimes rehearsed, that combined both visual and performing arts into one event. In many of these the audience became participants. Perhaps these were influenced by the realpolitik of demonstrations and sit-ins or by much earlier street theater in Germany and other European countries. Being performance, there is no intention of longevity beyond the actual performance itself. When multimedia was added in, performances were sometimes recorded for posterity, or the filmed version was considered the art piece. Documentation became part of the experience, and for many artists this mirrored or paralleled life experience more closely than traditional forms of expression like painting or sculpture (unless the sculpture happened to be kinetic).
Today, some artists are using science labs to explore the discoveries of geneticists and other scientists. Whether making rabbits that glow in the dark or using microbes to grow “art forms,” artists are pushing the envelope on what may be possible and in the process raising as many moral questions around art that many have raised about cloning or frankenfoods. In the past, some of the street art, the happenings, or live theater art events were just silly fun for most viewers though the artists may have taken the events seriously. Now, however, the art expressions played out in science labs borders on dangerous. Most artists are not trained scientists, and they may well tend to do things that many scientists would not do. If they work with toxic chemicals or microbes, it is possible that serious consequences could result. Plus, how some of these art expressions could affect the dialogue about scientific exploration and experimentation is unknown.
I can understand the desire to explore new territories of expression. Science itself has not always had the best track record. We have seen too many times things built because they could be built when probably they should not have been built. Consider applied science in weaponry, for example. Throughout the Cold War there were arguments for nuclear deterrence, but ironically it is my country that has been the only country to use such weapons. Still, we built bigger, more horrific bombs all the while continuing research into chemical and biological weapons. Where any of this will end is anyone’s guess.
In the past, artists have often been ones that criticized destructive behavior. They defended truth and beauty and the expression of life. That some are flirting with potentially threatening forms of expression is more than cause for concern.
Posted on 2/3/2013 3:46:10 PM
By Donald Fox
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I recently learned from one of my writing students, a mature mother of six, that her mother, who is about 60, cannot read or write. She told me how difficult it has been for her mother to get or keep a decent job. She cannot fill out an application or complete any sort of test that many employers require. Of course, in today’s digital age, she is completely out of touch except for television, but even there she would miss a lot of things that are written rather than spoken. Reading is something that is so fundamental to most of us, I feel sure that we take this skill for granted. Many, of course, who can read do not do so with any regularity or care. Mark Twain once said, “The man who can read but does not has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”
I am very grateful for being a part of American culture as much as I might criticize certain aspects of it. I appreciate deeply the educational system through which I learned the basic fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic. I learned far more than those basics, and the greatest skill taught through demonstration and example was how to learn. Reading and writing, of course, are tools that enable us to continue to learn throughout our lifetimes. When I became interested in really learning something about writing, I discovered that there were many benefits besides just being able to put thoughts down onto paper. One of the greatest benefits is that of critical thinking.
Practically every day I see students who have basic skills but still cannot fully comprehend what they read. Ask them a few simple questions about the text, and they really have to study it before being able to answer. If the questions involve what might be suggested by or inferred from a text, then they are quite lost. They simply have no clue. Leading questions can bring some students into a higher level of understanding, and some will eventually grasp that they can ask themselves questions in order to better understand a text.
Art can be challenging as well once we begin considering its meaning. Because art is a highly symbolic means of communication utilizing symbols, metaphors, figurative language, implied meaning and multiple layers of meaning, it can be quite challenging to the casual observer. As with anything else that we learn, however, with patience, practice, and the accumulation of knowledge over time, plus the application of critical thinking on the part of the viewer, art will not only yield its secrets but also take the intentional viewer/reader to deeper levels of understanding and satisfaction. Just as artists speak of their artistic journey being a lifelong one, so is the learning process for all of us applied to anything. Even the masters of a discipline continue to hone their skills and expand their knowledge. Without this continual education, there would only be decline.
The body needs exercise to remain supple, healthy, and efficient. The mind also needs exercise in order to maintain it functionality on the highest order. According to modern brain science, it is never too late to teach an old dog new tricks. Art can be a very powerful tool in this learning and growing process. Since one of the most effective ways to grasp something is to visualize it in some way, art can greatly assist us because so much of it is fundamentally visual. This is obvious in the visual arts, but it is also true in music, which has a strong spatial component, and in writing, which utilizes imagery and figurative language. Writing itself is a collection of standardized signs and symbols that give us first an alphabet, then words, then sentences, and from these come longer expressions of ideas complete with examples and details. Learning is a never-ending process, and art helps us discover new meaning along the way.
Posted on 2/2/2013 7:15:19 PM
By Donald Fox
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Bert Long - Looscan Library mural
Houston has lost one of its legendary artists with the death of Bert Long, Jr. Bert was an artistic force in the city and the state for over thirty-five years and helped spread Texas art throughout the country and the world. His legacy will live on in numerous younger artists of wide-ranging styles because his own work was not limited to any one specific genre. He is known for representational work, abstract work, magical personal visions, collage, photography, ice sculpture, and a kind of performance art that was his own unique personality. He encouraged artists young and old of all backgrounds and persuasions. His artistic footprints are all over the city of Houston in public sculptures and murals and in public and private collections. Major museums around the country and the world have collected his work.
I first met Bert shortly after moving to Houston in 1977. At that time I was just two years out of graduate school and somewhat intimidated by the vastness of Houston sprawl. Bert was the centerpiece of a group of artists and writers who met regularly in the basement bar of a hotel on Montrose Boulevard in what has now become known as the Museum District. At that time the arts were pretty scattered throughout the city and mostly underground. Bert was a major force in changing the art scene along with others who have become stalwarts of the community. He helped establish the Kuumba House and supported innumerable organizations and artists throughout the community. He attended openings of my early shows in Houston, sometimes when few others did, and was always encouraging. Besides his generosity, I most remember his positive attitude which was infectious.
An early lesson that he gave repeatedly to many artists was to document everything as completely as possible. He often toted around a large scrap book that contained notices, articles, show catalogs, any mention in any publication, photographs of his openings, teaching and speaking engagements, and anything that had to do with the presentation of his art. I heard him many times refer to Bert’s Book as one way to show any skeptics that he was totally serious and committed to his artistic expression. His book no doubt has many volumes since he showed his art all over the world as well as received prizes and accolades from galleries, museums, and groups worldwide including a Rome Prize fellowship 1990-91, an NEA Visual Artists Grant, HAL Texas Artist of the Year 1990, and TALA Texas Artist of the Year 2009. He will be greatly missed and long remembered.
http://www.chron.com/life/article/Remembering-artist-Bert-Long-Jr-4244180.php
Posted on 2/1/2013 5:51:56 PM
By Donald Fox
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A painter chooses to put together an arrangement of objects that could include variously shaped, colored, or textured elements, natural or man-made. They are set against a backdrop and lighted for effect. Then he or she creates a painting representing these objects in fine detail or expressive brushwork. The focus may be on surfaces, colors, interplay of shapes, various contrasts, or a combination of these. The painted design may be highly realistic or it may include personal interpretation that is suggestive of mood and emotion. All of these are choices at the disposal of the artist. To simply say that the painting is realistic because there are recognizable elements is a disservice to the painter and the painting. Art is interpretive even when highly representational.
Another artist may approach a landscape subject and choose to interpret that from a wide range of possible perspectives, not just different points of view, but potential stylistic interpretations. There could be as many possibilities as the still life painter might have including moving objects from one place to another. The painter would not be limited as the photographer would be. We could go further and say that almost any subject possible for a painter to paint could be presented in any manner that the artist might choose. In one sense, then, the subject is an excuse for painting.
The interpretation of the subject tells the viewer a lot about how the painter views his or her art. Ones that are illustrational may give impressive results of verisimilitude, and there may be little else for the viewer to appreciate. When the painter also includes subtle reference to thoughts or feelings, when the work becomes symbolic or metaphorical, then the viewer is taken into a different realm of experience. This is almost like the images that can visually shift between being seen as a young lady in a large hat or an old crone with a large nose. There is double or more meaning by the artist consciously working with different perceptions.
Very often art is about possibility. There is an element of filling in for the viewer to do. Not everything is spelled out in explicit form that leaves no room for interpretation. The viewer is invited to participate and, in a sense, co-create the work while viewing it. The best work tends to reveal itself over time so as not to give away everything at once. The viewer is given something new each time he or she observes the work. For me, this is the most interesting kind of work to encounter.
