[Artists-making-art] drawing the internal dialogue
Patricia C. Estes
pece03 at gmail.com
Sat Feb 8 16:28:45 UTC 2014
Good morning,
Linda, I am glad to be of some "help" in your preparation!! I guess I needed a Job!
The discussions have been intriguing...in the sense that I am being reminded of things I already know. Everyone's input has been fun!
About drawing: APH has a tactile board for raised line drawings/math assignments, etc. This is what I would put in the hands of a blind child-the stylus can be used for lines and a type of "shading." And of course, it would also be useful for a blind child to do the same thing as a sighted child, as you mentioned: feel the object and draw it.
(OK, get ready, I digress a bit: This reminds me of the work I have done as an Infant Massage Instructor-there are certain, simple strokes that we teach the parents and the result is calming, of course ...well, unless said baby being massaged is done!... but one of the many objectives of this massage stroke is "to help the infant to organize his/her world." In this case:"These things are part of me...legs, arms...and this is me here and that is someone else over there." At which point the baby realizes that they are getting some undivided attention and they get all excited! And with a blind child, especially, or the newly blinded, this art exercise in observing one's world would be really helpful in sorting out, organizing and internalizing. But it would be helpful for *anyone* to do, and for the same reasons!)
I like that your intent is not to try to get students to experience what life is like as a blind person!! It is just an art play!
OK...about drawing/sketching, I think that is as essential as learning the basics of music before playing in an orchestra. As much as we'd love to skip right over the practice sessions, that just is no other way. And I do think that there are "work arounds" for blind artists of any age who have never seen, to learn perspective and to share it. (Ann would know lots about this). Because of my background in classical sketching with my mom, I could branch out to design and suggest/gesture the images...like fashion design and even like impressionistic painting. Reducing the "story" to the most interesting lines/colors. (which will be different for each artist and viewer).
Best wishes-
Patty
----- Original Message -----
From: Lynda Lambert
To: An exploration of art by and for blind persons
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2014 8:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Artists-making-art] drawing the internal dialogue
Patricia, you bring up the most fascinating things. This is another one of those things that is so enjoyable to think about. Drawing! We do not need sight to draw, I am absolutely sure of that. In fact, in many of my drawing courses, I had students draw blindfolded. They had to feel the objects, then return to the easel to do their drawings. They could walk over to feel it as often as they liked during the process, but they were not permitted to have a physical "look" at it with the eyes. The drawings they made were astounding - so full of livingness and so magical. You are making me remember those things that I had not thought of for a very long time - and this is great for me because I am going to be a speaker at a conference on disabilities and inclusion in March, and this is exactly what I needed to be thinking about as I prep for that lecture.
If anyone else has some examples of experiences for me, that I could share with the audience, please let me know. I want to really make my audience understand that blind people have the same passions for art and art making as anyone else. We just have to learn adaptive ways of working, but we can do it, and we love to do it and it brings us great joy.
yes, I used Drawing From the Right Side of the Brain as a textbook for Drawing courses at the college! I also used "The Natural Way to Draw" by Nicolaides. I have worked my way through both of these books for years on end. Drawing is the core of everything we do as artists and without a good foundation in drawing, it's difficult to move on - it is the structure on which we build everything else no matter the medium we work with. Drawing puts us in touch with the internal dialogue and we become more aware and connected with the object we are drawing.
The interesting thing about drawing, to me, has always been that all children seem to know how to draw by instinct. How does that "fit" in your experience, Patricia? I have never encountered a child who did not know how to draw and make pictures - I have always thought we are born with these abilities. I think a child born blind would have this same inclination, if provided with the tools and opportunities early on, but that is a guess on my part. I would love to know more about this by someone who has had the experience as a very small child without sight. Drawing is more, far more, than the thing that is left on the page after the person has made it. It is a whole body experience - physical and spiritual experience, in my experiences. So, it seems to me that no sight is needed to make drawings. I like to say, about my own work, that the "thing that is on display on the gallery wall is the residue left behind as I was making art." It is not the art itself, it is the tracks that show I was there. The art was what transpired within me as I worked on it and the piece in the gallery is the evidence that I was there.
I have to say that without my extensive drawing background, I would not be who I am today as a blind person. I have a small amount of peripheral vision that is enough that I can detect movement. Those movements are "gestures" and it is through the gestures around me that I navigate the world and that I identify people and things. It is the essence of everything - gesture. When I am making my art these days, it is because I am accustomed to using gesture and can continue to do that without sight. Touch is gesture, and that is how I understand what I touch. I feel it's internal and external gesture.
OH, that is so funny about your 5 year old's comment about using his "girl brain." This is what I found so fascinating when I was reading this book, that the entire structure of the brain is very different in males and females. Each individual part of the brain is different between the sexes - so it is a physical as well as psychological difference. She explored many different nuances that really helped me as a blind person as well, as I was reading. It gave me new insight into different aspects we encounter due to sight loss. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has interest in learning more about how the brain functions, and it is explored in a way that a non-science person like me coulnd understand and enjoy.
This is all certainly another aspect of the discussion on difference between art and crafts thought process and ways of "seeing." Lynda
----- Original Message -----
From: Patricia C. Estes
To: An exploration of art by and for blind persons
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2014 8:54 PM
Subject: Re: [Artists-making-art] arts or crafts new member
Linda, the brain is so fascinating-or is it the mind?? My first real understanding of it (before I studied holistic psychology and energy medicine) was when our youngest was caught doing something or other that five year olds do, and he burst into tears and managed to blurt out emphatically, "My girl brain made me do it!"
Yes, Luke, I know what you mean! But he didn't go to school, yet, and we didn't have a TV...I think he just *knew*.
Dr. Christian Northrop teaches about the female brain, too. Her example is that she and her, then, husband were flying somewhere and she noticed that she was reading "Enriching the Mother/Daughter Relationship" and he was reading "How to get the most out of your Band Saw."
To bring art into this, I am sure you are familiar with the book,"Drawing on the Right side of the Brain." Pretty fascinating, if one has time to complicate one's life by experimenting with drawing things upside down.
Energetically, if you want to engage both hemispheres, Brain Gym says to "think of an X." And to relax the mind, think of two parallel lines.
OK, I'm taking my parallel lines and heading to bed,
Patty
----- Original Message -----
From: Lynda Lambert
To: An exploration of art by and for blind persons
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2014 1:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Artists-making-art] arts or crafts new member
Patricia, I just finished reading the book "The Female Brain" by Luann Brizendine, and OH, HOw I wish I had this wonderful information a long time ago. Raising my brood of children would have been so much easier if I had known these things about the differences between male and female brains. And, my goodness, I would have been a much better teacher, too. I would have a better understanding of my fellow human beings - but at least I do understand a lot more about it now since reading this book. It was so enlightening to me and I was telling my husband all about it as we would ride along in the truck. One day he said to me, "I guess it is like this conversation we are having right now in this truck." This was his insight as I was rapidly sharing so much information as he sat quietly listening...lol I said, "Yes, now I understand this conversation here in this truck so much better." We laughed.
Of course we are both crafters and artists - one feeds into the other. We all begin somewhere - and for me, it begins with my mother taking an afternoon to teach me how to do some embroidery stitches and to creat a picture on a linen tea towel - I was probably 8 years old. Then, it continues on with my precious neighbor taking an hour each morning, one summer, to teach me how to read a pattern and how to sew a blouse, skirt, and then an entire outfit - I was about 10. We learn from those around us, and how lucky we were to have them in our life. What I do today, is an homage to those women in my life so long ago. I celebrate them with every stitch I make in my art these days. And, I say "thank you" to them for giving me the beginnings of who I am today, and who I am becoming with each new day and each new idea I work with.
Lynda
http://www.amazon.com/Louann-Brizendine/e/B001H6RZB8/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1391798400&sr=1-1
----- Original Message -----
From: Patricia C. Estes
To: An exploration of art by and for blind persons
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2014 1:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Artists-making-art] arts or crafts new member
Hooray for "outrageous and for all of you for taking the time to articulate these distinctions.
I absolutely agree and have been an artist and crafter simultaneously. I am back to my art and love the discovery of it-but I will admit, my left brain does like rules and instructions-but my Girl Brain is winning! (no put down to Boy Brains, just a family joke).
Right on! Right on, Linda!
pece out
----- Original Message -----
From: Lynda Lambert
To: An exploration of art by and for blind persons
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2014 11:44 AM
Subject: Re: [Artists-making-art] arts or crafts new member
Well, this is an outrageous conversation, I know. lol I better get back to the studio before I cause a riot, but this should be a good place for a discussion like this.
That is great, Ann! So true. There is really not a fine line between the two, it is very clear and distinct. And artist or a crafter can take the exact same materials, but the mind that works with them is quite different and the results are quite different. It's really about "ideas" and "concepts" and what we are thinking about as we work, and where we go with the materials in our process of working. In Pittsburgh, PA there is a very fine museum/gallery called the Society of Contemporary Crafts - now, what is done there, and shown there is high art. So there is crafts and there is CRAFT, too. There is the "crafter" and there is the "Craftsman." very distinct differences between them - and as a sculptor you would be very aware of this, too.
I was so fortunate to teach in a small private college (Geneva College, in western PA) where I was free to teach across disciplines, as I have my MFA in painting/printmaking, and my MA in English Literature. Because of this background, I was very marketable for a good position. I was able to create multi-discipline courses - alway a combination of literature and art, as well as studio courses in painting, fiber arts, printmaking, drawing. It was a dream of a job, working in interdisciplinary studies and doing so many projects with profs in other disciplines. I was very active in conferences on interdisciplinary studies. I created an European experience for art and literature students and we lived in Austria every summer and then traveled to other countries. I even had an art exhibition in Austria for my students every summer. They worked so hard in the studio and out on location every day, and at the end of the month they had a show - so much fun. I also did this with Puerto Rico, and students came to PR with me each spring as part of their course in Puerto Rico Culture - which I have continued to visit every March even though I am now retired. It bacame how we spent our spring time.
OK, back to my studio where I am working my tail off to get a piece done today!
Lynda
----- Original Message -----
From: Ann at acunningham.com
To: An exploration of art by and for blind persons
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2014 9:08 AM
Subject: Re: [Artists-making-art] arts or crafts new member
Lynda, Nice answer to craft and art. If someone who is reading this is still torn I wouldn't be surprised though since there are all sorts of shades in the continuum.
I was talking to my daughter and a friend one day. I went off on a tangent tangling all sorts of events together rather randomly. They started laughing and saying something akin to how do you make it from day to day. And I said you guys are pilots and for you to be a good pilot you know and follow rules. That is what they pay you for. I am an artist and I am paid to break the rules. No one wants to hear from me if it has already been done.
What did you teach before you retired? Ann
Ann Cunningham
Tactile Art - a creative way to see the world!
303 238 4760
ann at acunningham.com
http://www.acunningham.com
http://www.sensationalbooks.com
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Artists-making-art] arts or crafts new member
From: "Lynda Lambert" <llambert at zoominternet.net>
Date: Fri, February 07, 2014 6:03 am
To: "An exploration of art by and for blind persons"
<artists-making-art at nfbnet.org>
Hi Laurie,
So nice to see you here. I did not start this group though, I am like you, I just came on to ask a question about something I needed to know and was so glad to meet Ann who helped me with my question. I am furiously working right now (oops, split that infinitive!) getting work done for the opening of a two-person exhibition at a museum - the show is called _Vision and Revision: Two artists with limited sight, not limited vision_ It is my pottery and mixed-media fiber works, and a legally blind painter. It opens one month from today, and if I stop to think about what else has to be done yet, I'll get nervous. So, I won't do that, but just will keep on working on the details. The show will appear at two locations this year and will have a video that plays in the gallery with the art works, Braille labeling, and artist's talks. I will even be teaching in the gallery one afternoon, for the Women in the Arts course at Geneva College. That is where I taught when I was a professor of fine arts and humanities, before I retired. I'll be lecturing on the historical context of my work and where the ideas have come from when creating it.
To make matters even more difficult, I am scheduled to speak at a conference at Slippery Rock University of PA for two sessions, the day before we hang our show. So, I have those presentations to be working on every day now, too. I officially retired from teaching 5 1/2 years ago, but I am still very much involved in everything but being in the classroom.
Here is my response to the question you have asked. The gap between an artist and a crafter is like crossing the ocean, it is that wide. Some basic things may be similar between the two, but most things are very far apart philisophically.
Both work with the hands, and both love working with the hands and most have done it all their life.
Both love the materials, and the handling of them, and the satisfaction of the finished product that comes out of it.
While the crafter will usually be satisfied with beginning something and knowing where the end will be, the artist begins with no notion of where the end will be or even if it will be. the crafter has a clearly defined path to the finished product. The artist has only some inklings of possible outcomes, but has to find them as she works.
The other very big thing I see as a difference between them is that the crafter has 'rules" to follow and seldom will ever deviate from those rules, as they are set in stone in her mind. On the other hand, the mature artist has learned that there are no rules at all. They may begin in the early stages by learning techniques, but eventually with the years of working, the light comes on in her brain when she discovers one day - she is free of all rules when making art. Everything can be challenged, everything can be changed, and everything is fair game, for the artist. Is there any other profession in this world where there are no rules? It's the most exhilerating feeling to know that there are absolutely no rules whatsoever for me. Wow, makes me take a deep breath just to say it. Free, free, free, at last!
Laurie, the biggest difference between art and a craft is where the person eventually takes the techniques, I think.
A crafter seldom takes things to a different level but is usually content to learn something then duplicate it endlessly, then moves on to learn something else and does that again with it. The artist can take crafts materials (which is what you and I both do) and techniques, and then take them far beyond because they will combine their techniques and materials with the imagination. If you can teach it, it is usually a craft. If you cannot teach it, it is normally art. Art can begin by learning some techniques, or using craft materials, but then the person begins to ask the "what if" questions, and takes lots of risks, failures, and bends in the road on the way to it becoming a work of art. It is a "mind set" that is never satisfied with just the learning of something new, but one that constantly questions, experiments, and never knows where the "end" will be, or even if it will be. A "crafter" will never understand what I have just said and will most likely be huffing and puffing and angry with it. An "artist" is standing and applauding what I have said. It is that simple, and that complex. The artist thrives on change and making new discoveries and each work leads to other querstions and more change and more new discoveries.
One can see the difference when you look at work in types of environments. One will be setting at a craft show with a table full of things that are basically all the same while the other will have work on display in a gallery or museum. Each has decided where they "fit" and each is very happy with where they are. They are different animals, with different ideas, and different end results and outcomes. Each one has decided their own path and each one is comfortable with the decision she has made.
Lynda
Lynda
----- Original Message -----
From: Laurie Porter
To: Artists-making-art at nfbnet.org
Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2014 7:26 PM
Subject: [Artists-making-art] arts or crafts new member
Hi Folks:
I’d like to introduce myself. I’m a blind person from wisconsin who is a fledgling and budding beginner artist. my medium is beadwork. I make pictures and tapestries out of tiny little seed beads sewn together with thread. but most of my work is in making jewlry, but I have always looked upon my beadwork as an art form.
so, I have a basic question. What is the difference between an art and a craft? I do believe that all crafts are forms of art but are all arts considered crafts? Thanks linda and all of you for getting this list going as it is something I’ve always dreamed of seeing in our efforts to bring blind people together who love to both create and appreciate the visual arts.
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