Long over due for a post here. Its too bad this will be a short one, with few words and a newest work inspired by an online collaborative wiki (a bit redundant yes) project sparked by one of my professors Dean Valadez. This is the link to the site here. Below is my first act of participation.
The longer I am in school the more I want to be out. At this point I feel like college is taking a huge sum of time away from other projects and interests I have. There is still a great deal to learn at school no doubt, but the structure of it and the increasing irrelevance to my other interests make it more of burden. If I were taking classes on sound and web developement I would be a little more excited. Linking with my previous post on whether or not creativity can be tought I’d have to say that UWM Peck School of the Arts has not tought me how to truely think creatively. Just as importantly they haven’t tought me how to live off my artwork. One writer said it best when she said “art schools are afraid to teach incoming students about the art world, because then they would realize how hard it is” and wouldn’t have as many students. Many days and counting…
Artists are supposed to be creative right? I would argue that everyone should be creative, that everyone can find value in it. Artists among them can use this tool to make work that is exciting, interesting, and that brings about a different way of thinking. The question was raised to me the other day: can creativity be tought?
I do believe it can. One of my favorite professors Dean Valadez introduced the idea of creativity in an interesting way. He taught that when the mind finds itself in a place it is unaccustomed to it is forced to think differently. In class one day Dean told us that we could not draw with any sort of stick tool: no pencils, no charcoal, not even a bamboo pen for ink. The class freaked out. ”How are we supposed to draw!?” “This is impossible!” “Is he serious?” We were forced into a situation where our previous skills were of little use. Everyone was uncomfortable. This sort of discomfort is what Dean described as creativity. I would agree. Many of my most creative moments have been when I was forced, under pressure, and unfamiliar with the situation.
I wish I had taken photos, but the result of these works were quite interesting. New qualities of the mediums appeared. New possibilities arose. This sort of experimentation is essential to an artist because the more an artist knows about his tools the more he can build. Artists are problem solvers, they react to visual (in this instance) problems and solve them. The more you know, the quicker the solutions come.
Oh and if you want to know how we were able to draw with charcoal, graphite, and ink without using pencils, charcoal sticks, or bamboo pens you’ll have to just try it yourself!
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