13 April, 2014
Nobody Was Harmed In The Making Of This Artwork
18 May, 2013
Walt Disney Presents: Four Artists On Location, 1958
This early TV episode gives you the old "studio-president-sits-at-his-desk-and-pontificates" treatment. But, given it's Walt Disney, and given that he is reading from The Art Spirit, by Robert Henri, I think you will profit by watching this.
The premise of this film short is the contrast between the regimented studio production, where everything must fit animation cells like a glove, versus the natural inclination of the artist to do his own thing. And, if you haven't read Henri's 1923 master book on American art sensibilities, you will be surprised at his stance of grasping your own independent ideas and style.
Robert Henri wrote of Thomas Eakins, "His vision was not touched by fashion." I like the description from the negative. There is a counter-movement to the artist's way; he doesn't swim up stream to cooperate, but to counter the school.
It seems to me that Disney knew he had a studio of artists, and if they were going to be good at all, they needed to be let off the leash occasionally.
Walt Disney
07 October, 2012
Mindful Thoughts on Seeing Differently
Thanks to Dutch artist and blogger, Paula Kuitenbrouwer, for seeing my art as a way to unlock new possibilities. That is the idea: give up on reason a bit, and follow the brush. Except in my case, it is the pastel stick.
Her post, Changing from Right Hand Drawing to Left Hand Drawing (or vice versa), is advice for a reader who is suffering a loss of function in her dominant hand. My immediate reaction to this was how hard it would be for me to switch hands for writing, but that in art making there would be less trouble. My thought is that art is so much more than technique! It is ideas & reactions; expressions.
Mindful Drawing.
Image: Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519). Study for the Hands of Saint John, ca. 1491-93. Black chalk on paper. 11.7 x 15.2 cm (4 9/16 x 5 15/16 in.) The Royal Collection © 2011, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. h/t: About.com.
24 May, 2011
19 November, 2010
The Artist's Ideas - The Artist's Ethos
A work of art can't be questioned or dismissed. Saul Bellow.
The obscure word ethos has a different meaning today than it did seventy years ago, and it has traveled a malleable path since the days of Aristotle. Whereas, today, it is a corporate creed, it formerly held a deeper meaning. Pre-war artists owned the word - it was the artist's ethos. My 1936 Webster's dictionary has the following:
Webster: From the Greek, ethos, ἔθος, character. The moral, ideal or universal element in a work of art as distinguished from that which is emotional in its appeal or subjective.
How do the artist's ideas exhibit themselves in an artwork? Is it important for an artist to express an ethos through the making of art?
We have been considering The Artist's Ideas, with these previous posts:
Have Ideas
Quotes - The Artist's Ideas
The Inner Meaning
The Artist's Ideas
Paint Better Now
The Artist's Ethos.
The Greeks saw ethos as the first proof of debate, and it had to do with trusting the moral competence of the rhetorician. Fast-forward to our concerns and the artist's ethos. Let's unpack the definitions of moral, ideal and universal elements.
The Moral Function of Art.
Webster describes a moral element in a given artwork, which is, by definition, an illumination of right or wrong. As concerns the formal parts of art, there is no right or wrong. "There is no must in art because art is free," Wassily Kandinsky. So, we are left with artworks that reveal a moral quality intended by the artist, such as in the case of Sacred Art. See below some artworks that reveal strong moral qualities in a broader context. See The Sistine Chapel for Sacred Art.
John Dewey said that “Art is more moral than moralities.” Artist and blogger Katherine A. Cartwright is reading Dewey's important 1934 book, Art as Experience, and hosting a community discussion on The Moral Function of Art. See here, here and here, and remember to read the comment fields.
Here is the "see below." For my part of the discussion at Katherine's blog, I have been illustrating the moral function of art by identifying individual artworks that I see as strong moral forces in the canon of Western art. Blogger/artist Linda W. Roth had the idea first, and she chose Edward Munch's The Scream for its moral content. I think she's right on with that, and I thought of Andrew Wyeth's Groundhog Day, and Willem deKooning's Woman 1. These artworks are linked below.
The following opens a window into Dewey's thinking: Art is morally powerful because it is indifferent to moral praise and blame (loosely quoted). Do you agree?
Ideals - The Artist's Ideas.
Notice that the Websters definition relates to a work of art, and not the group known as artists. My understanding of "the ideal" is that an artwork must, to be true to the artist's ethos, reflect his ideas. See these quotes on The Artist's Ideas.
Universal Elements.
Art is a universal mode of language. John Dewey. Philosophers will tell you that language is wanting in descriptive power - it falls short of expressing what man is able to think. Art is a huge bridge in "speaking" to mankind aught words.
Edvard Munch, The Scream.
Andrew Wyeth, Groundhog Day.
Willem de Kooning, Woman 1.
Ethos at Wikipedia.
John Dewey, Art As Experience.
04 November, 2010
Have Ideas
Here are some thoughts on painting:
- A painting must become more than the sum of its parts.
- A painting is a history of what happened to the artist.
- An artist should communicate his ethos through his art.
- I believe that a painting should affirm the personal.
Here is the theme music for this post ( Right Click to open a new tab). Open in your media player.
You might need to update your adobe reader to view my illustration.
Previous Mind Maps
Map Your Ideas
20 October, 2010
Quotes - The Artist's Ideas
"I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else," Pablo Picasso.
“The artist must have something to say, for mastery over form is not his goal but rather the adapting of form to its inner meaning.” Wassily Kandinsky.
"One can say nothing about the content of a painting...It says itself, like breath without words." James Matthew Wilson.
"Truth and reality in art do not arise until you no longer understand what you are doing and are capable of, but nevertheless sense a power that grows in proportion to your resistance." Henri Matisse.
"In art, one idea is as good as another. If one takes the idea of trembling, for instance, all of a sudden most art starts to tremble. Michelangelo starts to tremble. El Greco starts to tremble. All the Impressionists start to tremble." Willem de Kooning.
"Any artist should be grateful for a naive grace which puts him beyond the need to reason elaborately," Saul Bellow.
"But often it's doubtful whether the logic of the work itself and the words used to describe it really have anything to do with each other," Thom Mayne.
“Trust your feelings entirely about color, and then,
even if you arrive at no infallible color theory, you will at least have the credit of having your own color sense.” John F. Carlson.
"See, don't think." Attributed to Wolf Kahn.
"I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking." Albert Einstein.
Kahn quote: h/t Tracy Helgeson.
15 October, 2010
The Inner Meaning
Some readers know that I have been bottle feeding a litter of kittens whose mother was killed by a coyote. Two different times, I've had the experience of bringing a kitten back from the threshold of death. These limp, comatose pets fit easily in one hand, and I bathed them, forced Pedialyte by soft syringe and just held them.
What is it that animates the body just moments before death, and yet vanishes at the point of expiration?
Woman with Dead Child, 1903
Etching
We are considering The Artist's Ideas, a series on the things that are understood in art but not stated outright. Tired of words and heavy thinking? Here is a visual way to understand this subject. The drawings of German artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) are easily understood just by looking. I queried her images on Google, and was immediately struck by her poignant meanings. Ugly truths, but tender beauty is revealed by the hand of this master. I understand there are about forty schools named after Kollwitz in Germany.
Käthe Kollwitz
Blogger view.
13 October, 2010
The Artist's Ideas
Painting is a thing of the mind.
Leonardo da Vinci
Imagine entering a beautifully appointed building, in which there are many rooms hung with original fine art. Some of the paintings are by masters, such as Rembrandt, Eugene Delacroix, Mary Cassatt and the like. Others are by unknown or little known but well respected artists from past eras. Still more are by contemporary artists in practice today.
You are just one of a large crowd of viewers, pausing at one painting, then another and another. There are no docents chattering; no plaques or notes posted to annotate your visit. Somehow, as the throng proceeds, they note little of each image, and by the time they spill out of the exit, most even have trouble remembering the names of the creators of the paintings or the subjects painted. By the time he orders his latte at the cafe, one patron has no recollection at all of even one image seen in the exhibit, and that is a representative experience of the crowd as a whole. He flips open his cell phone, and starts to read his texts.

Nothing was gained by this visit to the art exhibit; no memorable emotive experiences will be remembered. The coffee was good, but the viewers did not partake of any of the artist's meanings, and they go away with souls unfed.
Whose failure was this? Was it the lack of curatorial effort? Surely, but I lay the blame mostly upon the artists themselves.
Don't get me wrong. Rembrandt's meanings are readily available to his audience, as a painter of beauty in respect to all mankind and as an advocate of excellence in oil painting. Cassatt gave impressionism the delicacy of pastel's grace, and the charity of womankind exampled in the mother and child. But, in my imaginary tour (which idea I took from Kandinsky in his writings) the meanings of each artist, from the known and all others, is obscured by certain factors.
The hanging, although beautifully lit and nicely placed, contains artworks whose elements are so diverse, and confused in subject, type and style, that any hope of ascertaining a meaning is lost. Tragically, the majority of the works displayed do not have a foundation in ideas, but rather are pretty pictures set adrift in a sea of misspent intentions. It wouldn't hurt to have a patronage well schooled in visual basics, so that they may understand art's intent when they have the opportunity. But, we are taking up the question of The Artist's Ideas in this series of essays.
When you read my essay series on How to Paint for the Prize, posted last year, you may have noticed that I wrote a lot about content. Half of the posts described the artist's motivation through his ideas. Now that my exhibition season has, for the most part, ended this year, I am wanting to write more in-depth on this holy grail of the artist's true goals: The Artist's Ideas.
Now the prize is no longer my personal best, but I have resolved to triple the quality and the value of my art by next year. How will that be done? Mostly by resolving the core issues that exist for any fine art. I want to present my ideas in comprehensible ways through visual means. Read this series of essays on art content to see how core ideas can illuminate the visual artist's work.
To really understand the foundation of this series, you ought to read again the series on How to Paint for the Prize. These are the posts:
How to Paint for the Prize
Commit
Looking for the Why
Quotes on Content
What Are Your Ideas?
Content
Get There Quick!
Edit Your Own Work
Art museum photo: toni_janelle at photobucket
06 October, 2010
Paint Better Now
A new essay series is in the works and I will post very soon. Last year, after returning from Sausalito, I wrote about how to get a juicy prize for yourself. I want all of my readers who are artists to excel, and you will find some inspiration in that series. If you aren't an artist, but want to reach for the brass ring in any field, have a look. How to Paint for the Prize.
The upcoming series is a result of some recent conversations I've been having with artists and patrons. I want to offer you my ideas about creating art that is based on the best common denominator - ideas themselves. The most accessible fine art has some truth to reveal, and if you want to swim in that pool of making art that speaks, you must have ideas.
Meanwhile, I have been busy cleaning my studio and getting ready for the next events. At the same time, I am doing some professional development by taking a course online from the excellent Deborah Paris.
Please stay tuned.