One Last Lecture

"Every time someone tries to be like someone else they help form a category."

Samuel Carter

Humans like to categorize. Categories help us form paradigms, and they help us remember where to find things. Art is about categories. Media, theme, style, period...categoria ad nauseum. Aristotle lists ten categories in Organon, the first being substance or essence. Art is inherently prophetic- the maker imparts to the thing made substance. The viewer interprets. A conversation begins. Conversation abounds in the Art Room at Trinity (see below for examples).

Pieta

1498-99

Michelangelo

One last lecture.

This week, students viewed ten works of art that have survived humankind, in spite of physical abuse (intentional and unintentional). Here is the list:

Fountain

Marcel Duchamp

Night Watch

Rembrandt van Rijn

Danae

Rembrandt van Rijn

Rokeby Venus

Diego Velazquez

The Virgin and Child With St. Anne and St. John the Baptist

Leonardo da Vinci

Portland Vase

Maker Unknown

The Little Mermaid

Edvard Eriksen

Pieta

Michelangelo Buonarroti

The Actor

Pablo Picasso

Le Reve

Pablo Picasso 

To download the powerpoint, Ten Famous Works of Art (damaged and abused), click here.

New work from the students

Photo Serigraph

Madeline Keller

Serigraph

Mechal Harward

Serigraph

Tori Barbee

Watercolor

Samuel Carter

Serigraph
Alli Meyer

Acrylic on Canvas
CiCi Culp

Photo Serigraph on t-shirt from pinhole photo
Davis Martinec

Charcoal and Latex on paper
Michelle Berry

It's Not Lupus
Serigraph
Jack Traynor

Give Peace A Chance
Photo Serigraph
Izak Gainor




Photo of the Week

One Last Thing
A Short Film by Matt Deitch

The Last Week of Class

Rocco's Alphabet

Rocco Dinino

"Spoken words are the symbols of mental experience and written words are the symbols of spoken words."

Aristotle

On Interpretation

350 BC

Jenny as a Mermaid

Digital Photo manipulated in Photoshop

by Emma Carter

"Art is serious play."

Paul Klee

And so, this being post #2, I thought it appropriate to begin with something a young friend of mine made for me- the alphabet. It is the point at which our formal education begins. a b c ... and our lives are forever changed. Graphite marks on ruled paper and the abstract becomes concrete. Our thoughts become ordered by symbols not of our making, yet copied, again and again until mastered. Initially, however, the individuality of the student is expressed through the mark- like Rocco's alphabet. It takes a great deal of effort to return to that place of individual expression. One thing I have learned after teaching art to a wide range of ages (from kindergarten to university)- the older the student is the more specific the assignment must be. Oh to be Rocco's age again.

The last week of class. Where did the year go? This week will focus on the final assignment: a self portrait assembled from the past ten assignments. They are-

Hands

Favorite Letter

Favorite Number

Favorite Color

Favorite Song

Eyes

Facial Proportion

Favorite Time of Day

Favorite Food

Favorite Place

All ten must be included. Some of the finished pieces will be shown in the next post.

I sent a former student from High Point University, William Reavis, a link to the first post. His response was one of the highest compliments I have ever heard. He said, "...the art is edgier than I would expect from a Christian school." Edgier. I hope so. Francis Schaeffer said, "The Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars." Now, that's edgy.

A few more pieces from Trinity art class.

Watercolor by Gabriella Baer

Cyanotype by Liz Fagan

Acrylic on canvas by Paige Goodwin

Charcoal, graphite and ink by Emily Prozinski