Artistic Explorations: John Ruskin

Saturday, February 16, 2013

What is real?

The Stonebreakers by Gustave Courbet

“What is REAL?" asked the Velveteen Rabbit one day... "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"  "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When [someone] loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."  "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.  "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt." 

-Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

This week's Art History discussion- 19th C. Realism... the paint tube was patented, Gustave Courbet led a group of painters into a pursuit of 'the real' and John Ruskin delivered a series of lectures at Oxford. Ruskin said,

"... the entire vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of use... either to state a true thing or to adorn a serviceable one."

Cyanotype

Full sheet of Stonehenge

Pinhole Negatives

Cyanotype

from pinhole negative

Grant Smith

Cyanotype

from digital photo

Elizabeth Hemingway

Tuesday evening was Parent Night.

Here are a couple of views of the student art gallery:

Clay-work in progress:

A painting by Mechal Harward, in progress:

Painting on canvas... in progress:

And a beautiful photo essay we viewed in Photography Class-

J.t. greenfield, usmc from mrcarter56

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Creativity, Anti-Creativity and Masterpieces

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;

the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.

Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

George Bernard Shaw

This week we looked at the work of Jan Vermeer and pondered the question, "What is a Masterpiece?"
Here are a few student responses-

"... something alot of people can relate to."

Zach

"... the best result."

Katie

"... a true form of beauty."

Izak

"... makes you think about the world around you."

Michelle

"... a thing that changes people's viewpoint."

Will

"... something extraordinary in the eyes of the maker."

Emma

"... something remembered beyond you."
Eric

"A masterpiece will blow your socks off."
Will

"...isn't done overnight."
Mitchell

"... happens when you've outdone yourself."
Austin C.

"... highly controvised, but changes the way we think."
Austin N.

"Me!"
Riley

"You know when you've encountered a masterpiece because it stays with you the rest of your life. It's like chewing gum on the inside of your brain and it sticks there, becoming part of a private reservoir of things that take you away from yourself and your environment. It's just you and the masterpiece and the mystery. It grabs you.

Often you don't know why."

Anne Richter

Here are a few end-of-the-year masterpieces: