Monothons and Professional Curation

My son and I. The selfie was his idea.

Yesterday my son and I participated in the 2014 Monothon at [Press] at Untitled in Oklahoma City.  It's a yearly event that happens throughout the summer, where people can create pairs of monoprints.  The participants get to keep one print from each pair, while the other one becomes part of the Monothon.  In September, [Artspace] at Untitled will have the 2014 Monothon Exhibition, displaying prints created by those who attended.  Most of the participants are locals, but people are coming from Tulsa, OK, and Dallas, TX, to participate in this year's event.

"Catherine" a monoprint by yours truly. 

While we worked on our prints, we listened to probably one of the most eclectic mix of music I have ever heard, provided by [Artspace] at Untitled founder, print-maker, and professional curator, Laura Warriner. But as varied as the music was, collection flowed well together even on random play.  A few months ago, I created myself an Americana music playlist and I had to rearrange the order of the songs on it to keep from having jolts to the consciousness, but I don't have Laura's decades of experience of putting together exhibitions that feel coherent, while being full of variety.  Most of us don't pay enough attention to the harmony or flow of our environment to realize that it effects us, but it does.  While I'm not into feng-shui, I recognize the mental and sometimes physical friction caused from a disruption in my environment.  And I am very impressed when someone can create that flow, while still engaging and challenging my perceptions.

Some people think that they can put together elements based on solely what appeals to them and come up with something good, but I promise you there is a deep and rich difference between what an average person puts together as a collection and what a professional curator does.  A difference that can as profound as the difference between the glass animals at a carnival and the art of a professional glass-blower.

Videos of the modern artist Henri Matisse

I never even considered the fact that there were videos of Henri Matisse to be seen.  Pretty wild when you think about it.  I wish these had been available to my art history prof.

" There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted. " Henri Matisse

Tyler Green, editor of "Modern Art Notes," and art historian Serge Guilbaut, editor of the Getty Research Institute publication, "Chatting with Henri Matisse," discuss the significance of this book—the result of a series of unpublished conversations between Swiss art critic Pierre Courthion and Henri Matisse in 1941.

A word about Prevention Protocol:

A lot of mental health issues are exacerbated because of stigma.  People shun others whose problems they don't understand.  People avoid asking for help for fear of being shunned.

Fighting stigma takes multiple approaches. Not just advocacy, but positive and accurate exploration through literature, art, and popular entertainment. Acceptance needs to be modeled, not just protested for. You need to show people what it looks like so they know what works.

Prevention Protocol is meant to show a solution, which in turn will make it easier for people to help when someone is suicidal at work.  Which is the main reason why it is free and will remain that way.

Hopefully, with time, I will write more stories that give people a better understanding of mental health issues in a non-threatening way.  I have a few in Scheherazade's Box and several sections about trauma and grief in A Tragic Tapestry, which I hope to have out soon.  Of course, the mental health issues are subplots, unlike the story in Prevention Protocol.

It is my hope that if people get exposed to mental health issues in non-stigmatized ways, they will take the lessons more to heart and be less fearful of the subject.

Modern Artist Spotlight - Dave Devries

I haven't been feeling well this past week. I'm afraid my allergies triggered an episode of moderate dehydration and I spent my time off from work rehydrating. I do have a few science posts planned, as well as breaking my art survey into two smaller surveys. In the meanwhile, I will share an artist brought to my attention by a friend.

Dave Devries uses his skill to bring children's drawings into the realm of super-hero graphic style. He uses real images drawn by children, and with an opaque projector, uses acrylic, airbrush, and colored pencil to make them look realistic. This work became the Monster Engine book. Devries brings his work to the public, letting children participate and teaching college students how to do what he does in workshops and lectures. I love it when adults reach out to children and transgenerational communication occurs in a way that validates the imagination.

Modern Artist Spotlight - Julian Beever

Words really can't do Julian Beever's sidewalk art justice. I've seen him compared to Picasso, which is very misleading. Whereas Picasso went for flat abstractions, Beever goes for hyper-realism by making trompe l'oeil art that creates the illusion of three dimensions. Though I will give you that the works of both artists will challenge your preceptions.



Above is a video of him creating a sidewalk/pavement illusion for Aveeno. In addition to his official website, there is also a Flicker gallery of his works.

Visually thinking and different types of minds

Temple Grandin talks about thinking in pictures. I am so grateful that she has been able to find a way to verbalize how she visually processes things. There is no way I could possibly match her explanations. I straddle verbal and visual processing, but that doesn't mean that I totally understand a visual mind that doesn't has the access to the verbal skills I have. I know that I use visual processing. I also know that there I have not fully developed my visual processing ability. Verbally and mathematically, I had the training. I've been writing poetry since I was seven years old, thanks to my second grade teacher, who introduced poetry writing as part of an English/spelling lesson.

In this world of internet videos, I hope that more people like Temple Gardin are able to show us how to visually think - not only for those like me who intuit its power extends further than we see, but for everyone's benefit.

Modern Artist Spotlight - Baptiste Debombourg

I love it when my friends send me interesting artwork such as "AGGRAVURE" by artist Baptiste Debombourg, which took 35,000 staples to make.




Thanks, Viv!!

Art and Thinking

When I read some of the theories about how art began with humanity, I can't help but compare them to how drawing develops in children. There is such a strong connection between drawing development and cognitive development, as well as manual development, in children that it is hard to believe that "art" began as some dream state as some might claim. I'm not saying that it doesn't create an altered mental state, because it does. I'm just saying that art's beginning is entwined with the process of thought and the communication thereof. The existence of pictographs before writing also strongly points to a hand and hand relationship between art and communication. There is research that shows a connection between language and cognitative ability:

Neural correlates of Early Stone Age toolmaking: technology, language and cognition in human evolution.
Does Language Shape What We Think?

So it really shouldn't be that hard of a leap to connect drawing to the cognition process. Recently, I watched an older TED talk which showed this connection in a interesting way. I'll let Gever Tulley explain...



His observation that the act of decoration is part of the creative problem solving process, a method for letting the mind wander freely for a while, presents an possible insight into how our minds work. Tulley takes things a step further, introducing how manual development helps us mentally in this next talk.



I like the idea of his tinkering school. I like it even better that he can back his views up with anthropology and other science.

Brilliant!

Naming science as his chief inspiration, Mathieu Lehanneur shows a selection of his ingenious designs -- an interactive noise-neutralizing ball, an antibiotic course in one layered pill, asthma treatment that reminds kids to take it, a living air filter, a living-room fish farm and more.

And by science, he includes behavioral science too.



Unfortunately, this video is not on YouTube yet, so you might need to go here to see it.

Private and public artistic exploration

I firmly believe that art is an effective means of personal exploration. Even if we do not gain great insight or find personal significance in doing artwork, our minds gain visual and kinetic experiences that help to fine tune our mental processes. I touch on this concept briefly my last post. The following film clip shows some representational examples of artists who explored their medium.


Warning: there is profanity in this clip. You probably don't have to watch it to understand my next points, so feel free to skip it if you wish.

The way I see it, the artists did gain a lot from the creation of their art. Their personal exploration probably did help them to reach a better understanding of their world. However, I do side with the established painter cohersed into juding that art show. It was the actual process and not the finished work that created that transformation, so the art itself said nothing because the context had passed.

All art is useful, but not all art is communicable. There is a difference between the act of making art and the finished work. Cultural art is something that should speak to observer. If it does not, then the conversation that should happen between masterpiece and observer is missing, and there is no enlightenment nor increased understanding.

Personal art needs only to speak to the artist. Under the right circumstances, a single line on a piece of paper can open the gate to passion, clarity, and wisdom--but it will only speak to that artist. It is the artist's conversation with the universe. Such a piece of work should rightly be treasured by the artist, but not necessarily enshrined for the rest of humanity. That would be telling people that this line has now been done, there is no need for more. Instead, the line should stay with the artist's heart and she should encourage others to find their own lines, to unlock their own passions and wisdom.

Which type of art is more valid? The very question itself is blasphemy in my opinion. Without cultural art, we lose our soul as a society. Without personal art, we can lose our very minds.

I must take a step back from my philosophical gushing and point out that even personal art needs to be shared to fulfill its purpose. In art therapy, this is known as "witnessing". Witnessing is when the artist shows the work to a supportive person, who lets the artist tell them what it means to them personally. There is no critique, no suggestions, just an act of listening to the sound of one person's soul being reveal.

At the same time, there is much to be gained by playing around with the art of others, as long as the original works are left physically untouched. It provides an interaction between the artwork and the audience, making the original piece more meaning ladened and important as the conversation continues. The following talk, though mostly meant to be humorous, is a prime example of entering into conversations with well-known artworks.



Granted, the conversations can become turbulent in some cases, but once you develop a personal relationship with a piece of work, it becomes alive and part of your mental fabric. Your brain now has a larger visual vocabulary to work with.

Here are a few sites online that will let you have your own conversation with art. Enjoy the process!





Shockwave needed.

Art and public spaces

Olafur Eliasson does a wonderful job of showing how making public spaces an art piece, especially interactive, can help people become more aware of their surroundings and relate to them more. He also explains why this happens with things, such as waterfalls.

Of course, Eliasson uses artistic elements that reflect nature into his public spaces, which makes them more human than many man-made spaces. I believe that this reflection of nature that creates a common ground for all humans, whereas the obviously artificial space limits the way people relate to it.

Teddy Roosevelt saw the same thing in nature's effect on humans when he created the US Natural Parks system. He saw the National Parks where people of all classes could visit and be the same.

So nature reflected in art creates common ground. What does other styles of public architecture do? During the Federalist Period in the United States, elements of Ancient Greek architecture was used to bring a sense of order, beauty and achievement from that ancient democracy to the young country. Romanesque architecture was meant to life the spirit and strengthen faith. Crisp, clean, artificial architecture is meant to drive the imagination into future endeavors.

Likewise, shoddy buildings, and other signs of urban decay, negatively affect the psyches of those who live around it. The only exception to the "building decay=depression" rule I've found is when the decay isn't a crumbling into dust, but a reclaimation into nature. In which case, it often strikes me as nature embracing the structure--a marriage of art and life.

Art as a means of true social change

I've decided to talk a short break from sharing my favorite TED talks to share something that hit me while studying for an art history test 3 years ago. I have it posted it elsewhere, but I think it's time to share it here.




Take a look at this picture. Do you know why it is so important?

If you're an art student, you would probably answer with something like this:

One of the most admired frescos from the Arena Chapel done by Giotto, known as the "Father of Picturial Painting". It shows real emotion and human suffering. Uses focal points instead of symmetry, overlapping figures and shading. Done in Italo-Byzantine style, it breaks from the stylistic other-worldness of the Byzantine style of the Dark Ages, with its introduction of naturalism.


However, if you take into the account of the cultural and religious significance of this piece, it becomes so much more than the epitome of a style of painting.

To appreciate Giotto's work, you need to understand that in the Dark Ages, artists painted figures to look other-worldly to reflect the supernatural and unfathomableness of Christ and the saints. These were not persons who could be related to in a normal fashion. These were impersonal beings, who only interacted with we unworthy and insignificant humans out of supernatural mercy.

To this end, the populace were treated to paintings like the one to the left here. Faces that showed no emotions. Images that showed not connection to the things of this world. During the Dark Ages, God was not Love, but Power.

Look again at the Byzantine representation of Christ. Is the image a welcoming one? Does this look like someone who emanates love? Someone who had a personal interest in your salvation?

It doesn't to me.

On the other hand, look again at Giotto's Christ. Is there any doubt that the man lying there had a connection to those around him on a personal level? That they felt his love for them in their life?

To the best of my knowledge, Giotto was the first person to paint Christ in a personal way. Perhaps herding sheep as a child made Giotto feel a special kinship with Jesus Christ. Perhaps being chosen by the master painter Cimabue as a humble lad from the country, Giotto saw more of God's love in the world around him, instead of the power plays of rulers and religious leaders.

Whatever the reason, so moving and innovated was Giotto's works, that he was in high demand and other artists began to follow suit. Soon, many who could not read, much less have access to the Holy Scriptures, had a different insight into the nature of Christ - where they actually meant something to the universe and their Creator.


A description of Giotto from http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/giotto/

Giotto was short and homely, and he was a great wit and practical joker. He was married and left six children at his death. Unlike many of his fellow artists, he saved his money and was accounted a rich man. He was on familiar terms with the pope, and King Robert of Naples called him a good friend.



Rereading what I wrote, I realized that I need to explain that the rediscovery of humanism started at the same time that Giotto began his work. And, frankly, I think that his work was a main factor for its re-emergence.

Success

UCLA coach and English professor, John Wooden, explains his definition of success:



"Peace of mind that comes from doing the best you are capable of," means a lot more with some of the examples he gives near the end.




This video underlines the capriciousness of fate, despite of merit, and job snobbery, which is rampant in our society. Unless you're a celebrity, it's what you do that gives you status.

My masters' advisor, Dr. Bryan Farha, is quoted by Gerald Corey about people focusing on doing to avoid the experience of being. He never mentioned it in the classes I had with him (probably because we students mentioned the reference ourselves), but you will find him in the chapter of existential therapy of Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychology (at least in the sixth and seventh editions). Anyway, this idea can be also applied to our society - we avoid facing ourselves through our works. Granted, it's not as bad as building monuments using slave labor, but in the United States especially, value in the corporate world means more than value in things like teaching and other pursuits. And it has been that way for a few centuries, at least, as evidenced by the Booker T. Washington quote: "No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem."

Though, in a way, several people have now given the poet the same status as the farmer, based on earnings, and not for the better. It seems to me that we now over-value things that are actually parasitical to our society, while dismissing that which truly feeds body and soul. Everybody wants luxury; some even to the neglect of the necessities.

Greatest part of this talk is stressing the part that we should make sure our ideas of success are truly our own. Also when he says that the nightmare part is that scaring people is best way to get work out of them. My next post will tackle that with some research.

Prediction - the hallmark of intelligence

Even if you're not into physics and math, the following video also talks about balance and beauty, with gorgeous visuals.



A long way to go to fit a pattern, don't you think? Why do we seek for patterns? It is a very human thing to do and it helps us predict future possibilities. Jeff Hawkins talk makes a very good argument of what intelligence actually is.

Interesting alternative views

These are two videos that offer a different way of looking at things. Granted, most TED talks do, but I don't really have much to say about these talks because they are a bit outside my areas of knowledge, so I'm still processing their content. However, I do think they are worth considering.

Engineering, art and nature

This is another example of using a perspective that is based on usefulness. The artist considers his sculptures to be alive. That belief obviously helps him to create this fascinating moving structures.



Now this video keeps me glued to the screen every time. I love how he explains that evolution works on the "just good enough" principle and the extreme constraints of living organisms. Being inspired by nature tells us more than bio-mimicry. And who could not be fascinated by the robots they developed?

Deconstructing and Interacting with Art

As with the exception to parenting I mentioned a few blog posts ago, I only partially agree with Dr. Pinker in his discussion of art and beauty. Classic beauty is probably a human constant and modern art does tend to reject it, but there is a purpose for the exploration of deconstruction and minimalization. The problem is, in my opinion, that many "progressive" artists stop at the deconstruction and never finish the journey to reconstruction. Therefore, making their own label an oxymoron because they never complete the process to allow true progress.

Golan Levin, on the other hand, does. As an engineer and artist, during the second half of his talk, he shows the progression from simplicity of gaze to one very engaging robot eye.



I see no problem with merging art and engineering. Di Vinci was an excellent example of an artist and engineer. Michelangelo and other artists were also scientists. So, again, we see the creative cycle of divergence and the convergence.

Going back to the first half of Levin's talk, he gives examples of mixing sensory inputs. Evan Grant also works on making sound visible, through the science of cymatics.



Sound does have form and affects matter. There is still much data hidden in nature for us to find.

Creative Environments

Not a TED.com video, but still a wonderful example of a creative workplace.




It is a shame that not all engineers are like Golan Levin, who I will discuss in the post after the next one. I admire the BMW design team's sensitivity to their engineering colleagues; however, it really irritated me that the engineers at BMW couldn't think outside their own box. It seems to me that, while the communication part is very important, that the engineers themselves could use a good dose of Google's environment.

Creativity and play

The 30 circle test reminds me a little of when I did figures in my Drawing I class in college. We first did several drawings of our instructor with only 30 seconds per pose. Then we did a few drawing with a minute per pose. The last two poses for 5 and 10 minutes, respectively. What the exercise did was force us to just draw what we saw, without pausing to edit. Obviously, we only got basic forms at first. But this carried on to the longer drawings and I have to admit that I did much better drawing of human than I had in any other art class before. So, getting past the self-critiques (and external critiques) for a period of time does more than increase creativity, it also improves skills. Creative writing works much better if you wait to edit until after you've written the story. Starting to edit in the midst of creating will deaden the creativity and stunt the work. Editting happens after the creative period, no matter what you are working on. Or in Tim Brown's terms, the convergence period happens after the divergence period.

This next talk is also by a Brown - Stuart Brown:



It amazes me how much we have weeded out adult playfulness in the past couple of centuries. My son did a report of historical children's games last year and we were both surprised to find old books full of adult-too games. In fact, it was hard to find written resources of children-only games before the 1900s. A side-effect of the Industrial Revolution, I suspect.

Both videos underscore the need for kinistetic activity in problem solving. Though I didn't use it in my capstone, I did find a study on how swinging one's arms helps one to solve problems with a swinging element, while researching how the right and left brain function cognitively.

Back to the talk - while the meeting suits are fun, I can imagine all sort of sexual harrassment potential. But I can't deny that it is creative.

The hold of creativity

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discusses creativity, fulfillment, and flow in this following video:



In it, he tries to describe the paranormal feeling felt in midst of being creativity - basically, that the mind is so focused that it leaves no room in the mind for the monitoring of self or other distractions. He also lists seven attributes of being in creative "flow":

1. focused and concentrated
   
2. a sense of estacy
   
3. great inner clarity
   
4. knowing that it can be done
   
5. a sense of serenity
   
6. timelessness
   
7. the process is its own reward
   

A perfect example of being in creative flow is Adam Savage's talk about his creative obsessions:



If the humor is not enough, it is an incredible example on how creative people need research and knowledge to feed their creativity.

And as he says: "Achieving the end of the exercise was never the point of the exercise to begin with."