Thank you for your polite response. When I took art classes at a local University, it soon became apparent to me that in order to do art, I had to accept a belief system imposed on me by my instructors.
- In “Art Appreciation” class, students were shown a slide of a rectangular block of lucite with metal rods sticking out of it. The instructor, with great emotion, exclaimed, “This is a man’s life!” I have other examples of something in its obvious form being explained as something else
- In “Advanced Painting,” students would sit down next to the instructor during class with their latest work on an easel in front of them. Invariably, those who told an interesting story about their random markings received words of praise from the instructor. Those who struggled to find the words to explain the various markings or who were simply boring, received negative remarks from the instructor: “You’re not realizing your vision.” “You need to investigate your process further.”
- For my final exam, which was a significant part of my grade, I switched from my representational efforts to hand in a piece of canvas board with random squiggles and lines which took me 15 minutes to put together. There was no mixing of paint, just straight color from the tube.
After looking at it, my instructor said, 'Why haven’t you been doing this sort of work all along?" I promptly quit after this, realizing that I was part of a cult as opposed to receiving art training.
- While viewing exhibits at a local art museum, I came across a spiral of duct tape on the floor. Next to it was a small card. It read: “Please do not remove. This is art.” Obviously, those who were members of the cult and suitably indoctrinated would somehow know this was art. However, the unenlightened, such as the cleaning lady, might scrape it up off the floor - so that card was placed there.
When I returned to class, I asked my Life Drawing instructor about it. His reply? “That’s a man’s life!” Uh, huh. Cue the Twilight Zone music.
Peace,
Ed
Oh, dear. :nope: I can see why you feel the way you do, Ed. And Don, too! Hi!
That sort of thing would tend to make one dismiss all abstract expressionism and non-representational art as flaky.
I got my B.A. in Creative Writing and during that took an unofficial minor, so to speak, in art - basic drawing, graphic design, etc. Then a little over a decade after that I went back to the same university, thinking to do a double major in psychology and studio arts and then go after a Master’s in Art Therapy.
Well, I eventually modified that plan, dropped the psych end of it first. The studio art department of this university, while secular, emphasized a lot of representationalism and I was frustrated because I wanted to go into abstract expression at the time.
Finances - or lack thereof - ended my time there, and then a few years afterward I decided I will just be self-taught - read books, practice, etc. And I am enjoying that. How far I will ultimately take it is up to God and me and it’s too early to tell.
I’m not saying anyone has to like the kind of art I do!
But I do think there is an element of intention that comes into play.
For example, two of my favorite artists are Wassily Kandinsky and Jackson Pollock. Kandinsky had a lot of occult stuff behind his art. But I don’t have to buy into all that to enjoy looking at the interplay of color and form. Or to do something similar but with the Christian worldview I described in my earlier post.
Jackson Pollock was a troubled, cantankerous alcoholic whose life ended tragically. And his action paintings may just look like spattered paint, but I “get” his artistic vision and I like his stuff; again, I don’t have to agree with everything about how he lived his life, etc.
I could ramble on and on, but I think I’ve made my main points!
Ed, I’m glad you posted what you did; I had just unsubscribed from this thread because of all the back-and-forth about other stuff that IMO doesn’t seem to answer the question that the OP had posed and is only peripherally related to art. I was thinking about starting a new thread of my own, or just retreating to the relative peace and calm of my “Artistic Catholics” social group.:tanning:
So…I’ll stick around for awhile, see what happens next…:bounce:
Or I may go, because in the time it took to compose this, I got logged out, and now that I am back I see the other debates are still raging. Sigh.
Wonder what Pius would think of the Internet? 
