In the name of Art

[Mari]

Oh my God, I don't believe it ! have you seen the pile of Iron they have erected next to the Parish Church in Leamington Spa !
Totally ghastly eyesore, and completely out of step with the area . It belongs in a spacious park, where it can be hidden from view by the trees , if there are any left.

[cathidaw]

i'TS THE WAY OF THE WORLD MY GIRL -GET WITH IT!!!
Ihave a friend in my Art group who entered her palette into a prestigiuos art competition -and won 1st prize .
Another year I persuaded another friend to enter some gravel -nicely cemented into a seed tray-(varigated of course) and got a 3rd.
So you can quite easily see how important art is these days
And I will not mention the deliberately rubbish photo I entered 2 years ago into a national photographic comp - and was highly commended.

[Mari]

I really appreciate good art , and have spent a lot of time in art galleries.

But what is presented as modern day art is not always to everyones taste .

Do you remember Tracey Emin, who presented her 'Crumpled Bed' scene in the Tate Gallery, London . 1999-2000.

[cathidaw]

You may not believe it-but I thought the concept was good. We all laughed and maybe ridiculed at the time. If it had been a painting instead of being 'in the flesh' -as it was it would most likely have been a masterpiece--you know -kitchen sink, true to life pictorialism. But as it was real it was condemned mostly. I saw it -and of course it was well designed- but it could have been a stage setting, and was perhaps in the wrong place-but it got mega media coverage- and any publicity is good publicity here.
I think the majority of us think of a work of art as a painting, which causes a problem with this sort of thing.
Imet her (T.E.) once and she is so serious about her work--and she can paint.
By the way mari -do you paint, or do any of us on W.O.L.

[Mari]

Originally Posted by cathidaw

You may not believe it-but I thought the concept was good. We all laughed and maybe ridiculed at the time. If it had been a painting instead of being 'in the flesh' -as it was it would most likely have been a masterpiece--you know -kitchen sink, true to life pictorialism. But as it was real it was condemned mostly. I saw it -and of course it was well designed- but it could have been a stage setting, and was perhaps in the wrong place-but it got mega media coverage- and any publicity is good publicity here.
I think the majority of us think of a work of art as a painting, which causes a problem with this sort of thing.
Imet her (T.E.) once and she is so serious about her work--and she can paint.
By the way mari -do you paint, or do any of us on W.O.L.

No Cathi , I am afraid I don't paint, though I do love artistic works, and wandering around galleries when I get the chance.
My real passion is ............wait for it......... the 'violin', played properly of course, , I am taking lessons, even though I should have done it 20 years ago, nevertheless it is a wonderful, rewarding pastime, and the same with producing great art . The wonderful thing about practise is that I can use a mute on my violin so that the neighbours won't get annoyed.

,

[cathidaw]

The problem here is there are too many things we would like to do. and not enough time.
I work at home and I love it but always want to start something new.
I paint -and run a voluntary once weekly morning art class.am passionate about photography and belong to 3 groups, and a monthly reading/poetry club, also an art society.I have a big garden which suffers a bit-I like to tiffle.
My housework suffers more. (Iget worn out if Iget too efficient there.)definately not my forte.
I hope to start a childrens drawing class for the summer holidays -I love teaching kids to draw.
Your violin -reminds me that I have always fancied the cello-must look it up.One of my grandsons plays the drums-that too sounds cool to me.
I also like wasting time around the house and watch some daytime tv and am a night owl and and also read in bed so can't get up early--never could anyway!.
Somehow I muddle through life but on the whole it is good.
I'd like to move house but have so much 'stuff'Idont know where to start
I've rambled on and think the toast is cremated-which means a week to clear the smell--hey-ho!!

[Shizara]

do you paint, or do any of us on W.O.L.

I hold my hand up to this question. I used to paint in oils, but, sad to say have painted nothing since I arrived on this part of the world. I still write rhymes though.

[Mari]

Yes Cathidaw,
I agree life is too short to worry about housework, there are so many things interesting things to see and do.
Good luck with your art classes for children, I think art and music is a wonderful way of teaching kids self expression.
I did start art classes years ago, and of course my drawings were all out of proportion.

I am wondering whether Will deleted the picture of Tracey Emin's bed, was I not supposed to illustrate it here just for discussion? Not that it was a pretty sight anyway.

[Shizara]

I do agree with both of you, art and also music, are wonderful ways of learning self expression, especially for children. There are times when you can reach the child who is seemingly difficult to teach and even some who, in the past, were considered slow learners. Having been on both sides of the fence I have much empathy for the child that needs the light of learning switched on and it isn't always in the form of the standard curriculum. Struggling on the standard issue of the time period, Janet and John books, I fell far behind. There were several reasons for this, one I was bored out of my tiny little tree and so concentration levels were slim indeed and another being that I found life outside of the classroom far more interesting. I would stare out of the window, look beyond the window, across the playing area, to the road, to the homes with lovely gardens and finally to the hills, ever wondering what lay beyond. Being in the garden, out in the bush, being at the coast and watching nature in all its glory, fascinated by birds in flight, watching busy insects going about their day, watching a storm where the lightening cracked across the blackened sky was scary but exciting. I always wondered, as a child, what caused such events. A child of a million questions that were seldom answered. Never satisfied with fob off answers such as the thunder was created by clouds banging together.

What do you do with such a child? Let them fall through the cracks? Luckily, a teacher, very much ahead of the thinking of that day, spent the time to get to know this difficult, slow learner. Out with the Janet and John and in with Doctor Seuss. The shutters went up, the lights went on and I was interested. The next introduction was was art in it's various forms. This amazing teacher, using art and music was able to reach the bored and frustrated slow learner.

Years later, as an adult, I found myself warming to children with similar difficulties. One weekend I had a small group for a weekend. On the farm I introduced them to farm life. We drove to the coast - about 20 minutes away - sat on the wharf and they learnt to put bait on hooks and also the dangers of not being careful. All part of learning. Then, how to throw a line safely, without injuring themselves or others. On one particular weekend a storm blew in and the skies went black. We quickly packed up the fishing gear into the car and drove back to the farm. Once there, out with the art gear from the cupboard and I asked them if they could think about the storm, look out of the window and see what was happening, then recreate it for me. These wonderful children, aged from 6 - 11, used black card, crumpled black tissue, glitter to represent lightening and cut out shapes, painted, coloured etc. Then we had a simple, but short chat about storms. Being interested in something yourself shows and children pick that up very quickly.

If any of them had a family birthday we would use my little Acorn computer to create a card. No fancy whizzy programmes like you have on Windows. We used "!Edit" - Acorn always have a ! in front of programme names. In !Edit we created the card then used !Publisher to make it. Part of the creation was writing your own rhyme. Print it, then colour it.

Cathidaw, I can only commend you for doing such a wonderful thing. Those children will remember you for it. You are imparting to them a gift.

[cathidaw]

oh shizara I'm sure I do it partly for my ego.
Maybe we all unconsciously do things for that reason.
Iget a kick out of having a child - who may be excluded from school -who will sit for ages and create a drawing or something of his- or her own free will, and ask if they can come again.
I too remember sitting looking out of the window in boring lessons and wishing I was out there. I played truant once with a friend but was a bag of nerves and so worried that I would be seen.I didn't do it again.
Luckily I moved back to Coventry to a school which was more interested in the less academic stuff. Of course there was always the maths etc but the other things compensated for that.
My bugbear though was needlwork. Today I can make anything but at school my samples were the grubbiest -through being often on the floor-and always blood specked from pricking my finger- On top of that I had a younger sister whose work was so neat and clean I could have kicked her. my teacher despaired.
My knitting was worse.