Happy New Year! How would you like to start 2023 in a new, creative way?
Every Wednesday and Saturday, we will be posting an installment of our book, Through an Artist’s Eyes: Learning to Live Creatively offering you a pathway to art and the vision of the artist. Enabling you to develop your own inner creativity and apply it to the personal cycle of everyday living!
So let’s begin!
- INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF ART
What Do I Know About Art?
Have you ever really considered what you know about art? Are you secure in your overall knowledge and background of the subject? Or, are you at least familiar with a favorite area or type of art? Or then again, do you feel that you know very little about art, if nothing at all? As communicators and educators of the arts, we’ve heard all of the above responses. But, we have discovered that people often feel uncomfortable, tentative, and apologetic when discussing art. Not only at the beginning of our classes, but in random conversations we have with people in many setting—at a coffee shop or restaurant, or when we are traveling, or even in an art museum itself.
Why is this happening? It is the 21st century and many of us have more access to information and education than any other civilization since the beginning of time. For instance, just a click or two on the internet will reveal a virtual universe of paintings, sculptures, and other media, that is expanding every day.
Yet, does it actually matter, you might ask yourself. Why should I care if art is part of my life? I have friends and family who love me. I earn a living, I have ways of entertaining myself in my leisure time. What more do I need? Anyway, what can looking at a painting or attending a dance or music concert really do for me–activities that at the most take up an hour or two of my existence.
How does one of these art experiences make me feel? My spirits might be lifted for a few minutes after contemplating a work of art at my local art museum. Or, I might even remember some of the music the day after a concert; the words, the rhythm, the notes might echo in my consciousness for hours, as I do other, seemingly unrelated daily tasks. Or, a scene from a particularly moving movie might remain with me, creating a sense of longing to see it again, if only for a moment.
Fragments really, in a 24-hour day. But have you ever thought what it would be like if the arts brought unity and wholeness to your life leading to excitement and adventure as well as a sense of peace and tranquility; provoking your mind and imagination while also touching your emotions. Most importantly, showing you the path to creativity—an artist’s creativity. Though not requiring you to produce an actual work of art, separate and meant for public use and display, but to develop and cultivate your own, inner creativity, and applying it to the personal cycle of everyday living, whether at home or in your office, alone or with friends.
For everyone is born an artist so why not begin a lifetime of discovery.
COMING NEXT: WHAT IS ART?
Copyright 2010: Joan Hart, Museum One, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented including photocopying, recording and information storage and retrieval without permission from the publisher.
ISBN 9780615301884
