I will go over what I consider to be the most important points in this chapter, to give you guidelines on what’s important it.

If you assume my lectures will give you enough info for you to be successful in the course—no, they’re not. They’re designed to give you an overview of what is included in the chapter, and to give you some clues of what to look for as you read.  Your success will depend upon whether you READ that chapter.

Now let’s explore Chapter 2 , Awareness, Creativity, and Communication

I really want you to enjoy this chapter, and re-read it often.

At first, please look at the area on Visual Thinking. Isn’t it interesting that we see in pictures, but describe what we see in words? Realizing that our mental processes are visual is a great leap towards understanding how humans connect to and create art—why each person creating will create uniquely.  This chapter will explore how we are guided--or limited--in how we view our world, because of what other people—family, the media, teachers—have said or done to our minds. Whether you are open minded or limited in your thinking is due mostly to these early influences.

See if you can clear your mind and then look at the image on page 19. Did you see a pepper in this image at first? The artist who created this photograph is creating from his inner vision—seeing something before it exists, and working from a lifetime of seeing. Please read the writing he shares on the previous page about that.

We go through our whole life just “looking”, without fully seeing our world.  I particularly like Henri Matisse’s quote, “every day with a flood of ready-made images which are to the eye what prejudices are to the mind. The effort needed to see things without distortion takes something very like courage.”

Further down on that page, look for the difference between “beautiful” and “pretty” and the reality that art doesn’t have to be “beautiful” for it to have merit.  Leonardo’s drawings of the street life of his city is an example of art being profound without being beautiful.  Think about your own culture today and what is beautiful and ugly in it. As surprising as it may seem, your perspectives wouldn’t be the same as what was considered beautiful and ugly 50, 100, or 300 years ago.  The aesthetic standard (and by that I mean “taste”) changes from one generation to the next.

Would it surprise you if I said you are an artist? That you do not create according to the “standard” of aesthetics today does not negate the truth that all of us have an artist within.

In seeing the images of the children drawing birds and the beautiful freeform octopus BEFORE they were given the structure of expectations—a standard of esthetics of what a bird “should” look like--by an adult authority.

Now that child is afraid to create with his own inner vision, but sees the bird standard as a goal for his drawing. He is headed to where you might be—afraid to create, “I can’t draw”.  Fear is a defining characteristic of cultures used to control and contain human creativity. But there is hope!

People who have nurtured their own creativity in spite of the culture’s need to stifle it are seen in the following pages in your book. Simon Rodia’s Watt’s Towers have their own web site, which I encourage you to explore on your own.

 James Hampton’s creation that wasn’t even discovered until after his death, tells us more about the human spirit’s need to create without the structure of culture telling us what we cannot do.  An unnamed artist of northern New Mexico who carved religious icons without regard for Catholicism’s structure reinforces this.

Trained artists are in the mainstream today, mostly by learning from masters not unlike the apprenticeships of the Renaissance. These trained artists are always aware of their place in art history’s timeline, and this can be restrictive or more of a jumping-off place for his or her career. The idea of art is to bring fresh insights into how we see our culture. No easy task for today’s artist.

Visual communication is essential for our connection to art. Yet we use words to describe what is going on between our mind, eyes and the art.  I mentioned how artists change what they see when they create, and then we add the additional layer of the viewer SEEING the work, which then is filtered by that person’s experiences.

Because art always involves interpretation, each of us will see different things in art. Most artists invite viewers to see beyond mere appearances.  When we look at art, it helps to have categories to define what we’re seeing, so the chapter introduces you to the terms representational, abstraction, and nonrepresentational art.

Representational art depicts the world in recognizable forms. Have fun reading in your book about how the pipe becomes more than a tabletop object!

Abstraction takes the idea of a recognizable form, and extracts the essence of the object to where it is still recognizable (sometimes only if we have the source images!).

And nonrepresentational art begins with the use of design elements (coming up in the next chapters!) to create art that has no recognizable source.  When you become familiar with the principles and elements of design, I expect that you will see the beauty in nonrepresentational art as you learn how line, shape and form create beautiful patterns.

When we look at art, there is the mysterious aspect of content to deal with.  Content is the meaning in the art, and the one that is the most elusive for students to “get”, because when you first come into this course, you are looking, not seeing, and it’s a rare one who gets the meaning in the art without “looking” for the “things”—the subject.  

Tell me you didn’t see the face in the hands of this tree’s roots!

…or the similarity of the spigot to the crane.

Form is what we see; content is the message. Engrave that somewhere, because it is the essence of what art is and does for us.  

In Rodin’s and Brancusi’s sculptures, the form is entirely different, but the content is the same—the idea of connection between two humans through a kiss. Yes, you’ll prefer one over the other, but remember that the CONTENT is the same in both.

Georgia O’Keeffe responded to the form of flowers, and as you explore the web sites for that assignment, remember the message is in the CONTENT—and there have been many discussions about the content depicted in her work. Look for that, instead of just picking an image whose subject (whose form) appeals to you. Knowing the content of her work leads to a greater understanding of WHY she picked those subjects—her forms.

Throughout history, iconography, or the symbolism of objects, has been as strong message for content in art. Iconography tells us much about the culture of the art. Look at Albrecht Durer’s incredibly detailed engraving of the Knight, Death and the Devil. We see a nice horse and rider as the forms or subject, but the people of Durer’s time would have understood the content in the iconography in this image—the good Christian moving through life without being distracted by the devil’s temptations and avoiding death as he heads for the afterlife. The dog symbolizes faithfulness, and you’ll see them in many paintings of the time, and now you know they aren’t just the family pet! Even the lizard has an iconographic meaning.

Please enjoy reading about the iconography in the works presented in the rest of this chapter. I hope that after reading about how artists use iconography and content will open your eyes to SEEING differently the works of art to come!

This ends Chapter 2’s lecture.