so what all else is "art"?
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In a message dated 6/6/2005 2:58:39 PM Mountain Daylight Time,
aisliin@... writes:
I believe everyone has "artistic"
talent but it's certainly not always in the areas that
schools demand that you express it (drawing, paint and
clay usually) but may be in woodworking, cooking,
quilting, singing, photography, interior decorating,
asthetic gardening or landscape design, etc. and so
on.
This is a lot like some thinking I was just doing about the word "chores."
I was working on a page on English
_http://sandradodd.com/english_ (http://sandradodd.com/english)
and thinking that maybe when most people hear "English" in the context of
homeschooling or schoolish anything they think writing, grammar, spelling, book
reports, etc.
One of the links on that page is to the page on the difference between
teaching and learning and how really, deeply important it is for people who are
thinking about teaching and learning to know the difference between them. And
it's a vast difference. They are not two sides of the same coin. They're
not even made of the same metal.
And I was thinking that one of the problems with "chores" is that the word
has the connotation of being something that's not fun, something that involves
assigned drudgery. When I say "my kids don't have chores," some people
hearing it probably fill in their own "chore list," and so assume they never,
ever pick up their laundry or make their beds or clean their rooms or put dishes
in the sink, or whatever all. That's not what it means.
And maybe so with art. If people say "Do you like art?" or "Are you
artistic?" the listener fills in whatever he thinks of "art" as being. And if it's
limited to what's taught in school (either studio or appreciation/history), a
person (such as myself) who has never painted in oils, can't draw a
recognizeable person, and isn't a sculptor could easily say "no" to the latter, and
if the very question caused inner turmoil, "no" the the former.
Bummer.
I've seen people set tables and put the food on in really artistic ways.
(Very occasionally it was me, but not enough to "count.")
Some people can arrange their houses, or flowers, or clothes in the closet,
or magazines on a table, in really striking ways, never before done, without
working really hard, sketching plans, or consulting books. <g>
There must've been a car show here this weekend, because we saw several
older (40's) cars, not exactly restored historically, but neither were they
chopped up low-riders. They were operational art, driving around on real roads.
A friend of mine has medieval horse barding and braids her horse and dresses
it up sometimes, and rides it in costume. It's a little like playing
Barbies, but way bigger. <g>
I've been messing with my garden, and moving plants and putting things in
from seed, and pulling selected things out. Many are more artistic than I am,
but I'm having fun anyway.
How about other everyday uses of aesthetically pleasing arrangements of
things?
What are the limits? Does it need to be just visual? What is art to the
blind?
How about those beds at furniture and bedding stores, all jacked up off the
ground with twelve pillows and three coverlets and sheets that match dust
ruffles? Art.
And about that English thing, while I'm on it. The word "artificial" has to
do with art, and a few hundred years ago it was a huge compliment to say
that something was "artificial." If someone could make a rose out of metal or
plaster and have it look like a real rose, others were mightily impressed and
praised its artificiality.
_artifice_ (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=artifice)
(http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=artifice)
1534, "workmanship," from M.Fr. artifice "skill, cunning," from L. artificium
"making by art, craft," from artifex (gen. artificis) "craftsman, artist,"
from ars "art" (see _art_ (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=art) (n.))
+ facere "do" (see _factitious_
(http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=factitious) ). Meaning "device, trick" (the usual modern sense) is from 1656.
(from etymologyonline.com)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
aisliin@... writes:
I believe everyone has "artistic"
talent but it's certainly not always in the areas that
schools demand that you express it (drawing, paint and
clay usually) but may be in woodworking, cooking,
quilting, singing, photography, interior decorating,
asthetic gardening or landscape design, etc. and so
on.
This is a lot like some thinking I was just doing about the word "chores."
I was working on a page on English
_http://sandradodd.com/english_ (http://sandradodd.com/english)
and thinking that maybe when most people hear "English" in the context of
homeschooling or schoolish anything they think writing, grammar, spelling, book
reports, etc.
One of the links on that page is to the page on the difference between
teaching and learning and how really, deeply important it is for people who are
thinking about teaching and learning to know the difference between them. And
it's a vast difference. They are not two sides of the same coin. They're
not even made of the same metal.
And I was thinking that one of the problems with "chores" is that the word
has the connotation of being something that's not fun, something that involves
assigned drudgery. When I say "my kids don't have chores," some people
hearing it probably fill in their own "chore list," and so assume they never,
ever pick up their laundry or make their beds or clean their rooms or put dishes
in the sink, or whatever all. That's not what it means.
And maybe so with art. If people say "Do you like art?" or "Are you
artistic?" the listener fills in whatever he thinks of "art" as being. And if it's
limited to what's taught in school (either studio or appreciation/history), a
person (such as myself) who has never painted in oils, can't draw a
recognizeable person, and isn't a sculptor could easily say "no" to the latter, and
if the very question caused inner turmoil, "no" the the former.
Bummer.
I've seen people set tables and put the food on in really artistic ways.
(Very occasionally it was me, but not enough to "count.")
Some people can arrange their houses, or flowers, or clothes in the closet,
or magazines on a table, in really striking ways, never before done, without
working really hard, sketching plans, or consulting books. <g>
There must've been a car show here this weekend, because we saw several
older (40's) cars, not exactly restored historically, but neither were they
chopped up low-riders. They were operational art, driving around on real roads.
A friend of mine has medieval horse barding and braids her horse and dresses
it up sometimes, and rides it in costume. It's a little like playing
Barbies, but way bigger. <g>
I've been messing with my garden, and moving plants and putting things in
from seed, and pulling selected things out. Many are more artistic than I am,
but I'm having fun anyway.
How about other everyday uses of aesthetically pleasing arrangements of
things?
What are the limits? Does it need to be just visual? What is art to the
blind?
How about those beds at furniture and bedding stores, all jacked up off the
ground with twelve pillows and three coverlets and sheets that match dust
ruffles? Art.
And about that English thing, while I'm on it. The word "artificial" has to
do with art, and a few hundred years ago it was a huge compliment to say
that something was "artificial." If someone could make a rose out of metal or
plaster and have it look like a real rose, others were mightily impressed and
praised its artificiality.
_artifice_ (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=artifice)
(http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=artifice)
1534, "workmanship," from M.Fr. artifice "skill, cunning," from L. artificium
"making by art, craft," from artifex (gen. artificis) "craftsman, artist,"
from ars "art" (see _art_ (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=art) (n.))
+ facere "do" (see _factitious_
(http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=factitious) ). Meaning "device, trick" (the usual modern sense) is from 1656.
(from etymologyonline.com)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]