Paint Paint Paint Paint

So I've mentioned before that I believe kids learn through movement and sensory experience - and what's more of a sensory experience than painting? Jake actually had sensory problems when he was in preschool, so much so that we worked with an Occupational Therapist for two years. Among other things, Jake was tactile defensive - and that's where painting came in.

It took so much just for him to be able to TOUCH anything wet or slippery or slimy. So finger-painting? The hallmark of the preschool-age experience? He was having none of it. He was happy to use a brush, but wouldn't use his fingers for the longest time. Sometimes if he was painting for quite a while, he would loosen up and start painting on himself and enjoyed it until he realized he had paint on him - and then all activities would come to a halt. It was a long process, but he seems to have gotten past the defensiveness. Painting in all its forms was very much a part of our lives during those years.




Now that he's going into 3rd grade, he's much more interested in playing computer games than painting - and when he does want to be artistic, it's usually with my scrapbooking supplies. But I look back on our painting days fondly.

Belmont's Tan Stucco Building

Oh yes, I meant to post about my building at work.

This house used to be one of about a dozen similar buildings, but it's the only one left on campus - we recently had a graduate from 1944 stop by for a visit and she was telling us that when you came to Belmont you were divided into social houses, and these buildings were used for chaperoned dates. (TOO CUTE.)

Anyway, the building's exterior used to be pretty boring - with no cool landscaping and no cool statues. In 2003 the bear statue arrived on campus and it was put in front of our building. Back then we hadn't really landscaped around it, so it looked kind of plain. Still, though, it's a statue that catches people's attention. And that's all well and good.

But the view from my desk? When the window shades weren't closed?

Not so much fun.
(It's ok, the landscaping fixed it.)

Once we realized that the entire area around the bear needed landscaping, the area looks so much better - totally lush in the spring and summer. I particularly like how the azaleas bloom first, and then the hydrangeas take over the design as the seasons progress.


The bear statue is a popular place for visitors to campus to have their picture taken, as can be seen from this picture of my son and his friends, who were on campus last year for bug camp.

The campus bookstore has even taken to using the statue as part of their advertising campaign. Good times.

In the past year, we've also gotten a new marble statue on our north side, and I think she's just lovely. She is a great tie-in to the north part of campus with all the similar statues around circle drive and in the mansion:



And that's it! The building I've been in non-stop for almost 10 years. :) The statues and landscaping really add to the aesthetic and totally make me smile.

Impressionism Exhibit at the Frist

This past December my sister was in town visiting, and my best friend convinced us all to go to the Frist. I'm so glad we went; the exhibit was amazing. (The pictures all enlarge if you click on them.)
This would be Jake and I at the back entrance. He is thrilled, as you can see.

The kids really liked the headphone sets that allowed them to punch in numbers next to paintings and hear their own personal tour-guide. This entertained the kids enough that it bought Kathy and Priscilla and I some time to actually enjoy the paintings. After we all went through, we decided to split up, and Kathy and I took Aowyn back through for a second look. Monet and Degas were our favorites, as we kind of already knew. :)

In addition to the Impressionism exhibit, there was also a Chihuly glass exhibit. It was amazing, and I would have enjoyed it more, were I not trying to corral a very hyper 8 year-old boy. :)


The best part of the Frist, honestly, was the children's art exploration area upstairs.

The kids probably won't remember this trip, but I think it was worth the hassle! (Hassle of parking, in particular!) We had a lot of fun, and it was amazing to see famous paintings up close.

Le Quire Gallery Visit

On June 21st, the Le Quire Gallery on Charlotte Ave. in Nashville opened a new show:

"The Stable - Select Paintings and Sculptures From Each of Our Distinguished Artists"

Probably the most impressive sculpture is the 48 square foot American flag created by artist Ben Caldwell. One of the gallery workers on the opening night was telling me that while artists usually use a kiln when working with enameled copper, Ben Caldwell created this enormous sculpture with the help of a hand-made blow-torch. (So. much. win.)

I had a lot of favorite sculptures. My two favorites were (1) Reclining Figure by Scott Wise, made of limestone, and (2) I guess this is unnamed? Created by Somers Randolph, made of Italian white alabaster.

For the first, I like the use of negative space (or would we call it here implied space?); three separate pieces of limestone come together to create the visual illusion of a single object.



The spiraling alabaster, on the other hand, is notable for having so much shape and so many interesting curves, but created from a single piece of stone.



My favorite painting was Evening Sky in Ovando by Ashley Wiltshire. The painting medium is oil on panel. (Only $3,800, if you are so inclined!) I love the colors - the blues and the clouds remind me of a calm and quiet evening. I like how the right third of the canvas is anchored with a dark tree, which works together with the dark ground (and much smaller-sized trees) to give a feeling of depth. A lighter tree (which is hard to see in this picture) seems to be very close to the viewer, creating another layer of depth. The horizontal lines of light between the clouds - as can be seen on moonlit nights - are just wavy enough to keep one's eye moving around the painting before settling on the area where the moon is surely hiding behind the clouds in the almost center.

Assignment questions:

1. Does it change your perspective to discuss a work of art with the artist himself? N/A as I wasn't able to visit when the class did.

2. How do the Greg Decker paintings make you feel? Greg Decker's paintings have a dreamy feel to them - the soft brush strokes remind me of Impressionistic works, especially the lack of strong lines. Harp and Kitten, in particular, is especially beautiful.

3. How does the way in which the exhibit is installed effect the way you experience it? Well, I was a little afraid I was going to step on some of the sculptures that were installed on the floor. I liked how the sculptures and paintings were all together in the same rooms - I think the combination of 2D and 3D art makes the viewer slow down and really take everything in.

4. Discuss one work of sculpture and one painting from LeQuire. Try to start with an objective description, then describe you personal response to the work. See above.

Collage project

Summary:

My collage is an outdoor scene, with a sun shining in the upper right, and the sun’s rays extending toward a bookshelf that houses a representation of who I am – my family, my interests, my insecurities, and my experience with art. Within the sun’s rays are pictures of my past (including parents and grandparents), the place I am from (Colstrip, Montana) and the place I now consider home (Belmont), my present, and a representation of art that is meaningful to me as history.

Assignment specs and responses:

On a standard sheet of poster board create a collage that says something about you, your world, and your view of art. This project should incorporate all of the following ideas:

Decisions: see everything below

Color: You must include
complementary colors: Complementary colors can be found with the purple flower on the bookshelf surrounded by yellow ribbon and two yellow circles.
analogous colors: The representation of the sun is made of 3 shades: yellow / yellow-orange / orange.
saturated colors & dull colors: The flower in the bottom right corner consists of a bright orange and a dull orange.
warm colors: Warm colors (mainly oranges and yellows) are found with the sun, the sun’s rays, and circle accents throughout
cool colors: Cool colors are found in the purple cut-outs on the bookshelf.

Light: You must have both light and dark areas on your collage—these elements must represent thoughtful choices.

Texture and Pattern: The stem of the flower at the bottom right is 3D, wrapped with fiber, and the flower center has faux-gems. The center of the sun is 3D as well. The photos in the sun’s rays are in a linear grid pattern.

Volume: I used darker green of the grass versus the lighter blue of the sky to create grounding of the image, as well as a sense of depth. The layers of grass and hill-shaped cutting also contribute to this.

Line: The yellow circles in this collage move the eye around in a triangular line, starting with the sun, then to the yellow accented purple flower on the left, and then to the circle at the bottom right, also accented with yellow. The solid lines that form the representation of the sun’s rays also serve to move the eye from the sun to the purple flower.

Space and Scale: The most obvious object with scale is the very large image of my son. As a mother, you not only care more about your children than anything else, but they take up the most time and mental energy in your life. The pictures in the sun’s rays are small and close together in no specific order because that’s how I see ancestry and culture and experience coming together to influence a person (in combination with the personal choices they make.) The grass is the foreground and houses the bookshelf and the picture of Jake, while the sky is the background and houses the sun. The sun’s rays visually connect the sun in the background to the bookshelf in the foreground.

Symbolism: The bookshelf’s middle shelf with all the purple objects represent 5 of the major things in my life I’m insecure about. The room with the piano that seems to be off all by itself at the bottom right represents my questioning where music fits into my life right now.

Subject Matter:
Your collage should incorporate the elements that make you who you are. It must include the following themes:

You: The most important things to me are my son, books (and learning and teaching), art and design in its various forms, spirituality, scrapbooking, and my friends.

Friends and Family: This collage has pictures of my parents and grandparents, my son, and my best friend and her family. There are also pictures of my two sisters and I; my older sister is faded from the picture of the three of us in the bookshelf, because she died last year.

Your town, community, school: There are two pictures from my hometown in Montana, and three pictures of Belmont. I have been at Belmont in some capacity since fall 1997, and consider it my home – the places around middle Tennessee where I’ve lived are just incidental.

Your country: When I started thinking about it, art plays a big part in my understanding of our country’s history. The paintings and photos in my history books always grabbed my attention much more than any text could. Symbolic art objects like the Statue of Liberty (pictured) and Mount Rushmore (not pictured, but visited often) and war memorials are touch points for national sentiment.

The world today: In order to understand the world today, we need to have a historical knowledge of how we got here. Art is a way to bring that knowledge to life – as I said, looking at art from another era or country can grab a person’s attention much stronger than just text can. Additionally, the human impulse to create art exists through all cultures and all of recorded history and gives us common ground.

Art: I view art in several ways.
- First, as a parent and aspiring (already part-time) educator, I see how children learn primarily through movement, experience, and sensory input. Creating an art project involves all of these things – art is beneficial to a child’s motor and planning skills and creative thinking, and it builds confidence.
- Second, I see art as a way to learn about our past and our world – the phrase “ars longa, vita brevis” is below the pictures of our visit to the Frist. If you think about it, all that really remains after time passes are the different forms of recorded art – both visual and written. (A subset of this is my personal hobby of scrapbooking – recording memories through images and words in a way that is much more interesting than just a photo album or journal.)
- Third, I like to look at interesting things. I love Belmont’s campus because of all the statues and landscaping around them. I loved the public art in Seattle. I deliberately designed my main living room wall to be aesthetically pleasing and visually balanced. We have opportunities every day to make our surroundings not just functional, but beautiful, and visual art, design, and crafts all come together to make that possible.

History: How has history made you who you are? How has it shaped the world today? How does art relate to history?

I don't see history as necessarily shaping anything; I see history as a shape we observe looking back.

However. Through art we get a glimpse into the minds of others. Art can teach us about history - sometimes as observation, sometimes as opinion or propaganda. Art can spur on political or social movements by encapsulating and representing ideas. Art can also represent beliefs and understandings of different cultures across different time periods.

Art, history, science, literature, religion, politics . . . none of these things can really be understood apart from the others. They're all tributaries of the same body of water, always moving forward and always changing.

Nashville's Parthenon

Assignment questions for Parthenon visit:

1. What was the function of the Parthenon?

Architecturally, the Parthenon is a Greek Temple. A Greek Temple didn’t serve the same kind of purpose as our understanding of a temple (i.e. a place of worship.) Greek Temples served to house statues or votive offerings; worship took place outdoors, and worshippers didn’t enter the temple – they only looked in from the outside. The Parthenon in Athens famously housed an enormous statue of the Goddess Athena. The Parthenon was also used as a treasury.

2. What stories do the Parthenon metopes and pediments tell?

The ninety-two metopes depicted mythical battles, as well as other myths and early Athenian history. Panels that were poorly preserved are thought to depict the destruction of Troy during the Trojan War.

There are two pediments: one depicts the mythical birth of Athena (springing forth from Zeuss’ head, covered in battle armor), the other depicts the competition between Athena and Poseidon to be the city’s patron. (I guess that had Poseidon won, the city would be called Poseides?)

Sidenote: To right was my attempt to take a picture of me in front of the Parthenon on my own. Total win.

3. What style columns are on the Parthenon exterior?

There were three types of columns used in the architecture of Ancient Greece: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The columns at the Parthenon are Doric, which have no base and are of a 7:1 base diameter to height ratio.

4. Why is there a Parthenon in Nashville?

The Parthenon was built in 1895 to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of Tennessee becoming a state. It originally wasn’t built to be permanent, but rather was one of 36 buildings built for the Grand Centennial Exposition. Apparently the people of Nashville loved the Parthenon so much, they rallied for it to become a permanent fixture rather than be torn down like the other buildings. The original Parthenon lasted 23 years, and in 1920 building efforts began to replace it with a structure that would last.

5. What is your experience being outdoors at the Parthenon? Think about the height of the building, the play of light, etc.

Standing next to the Parthenon is awe-inspiring. It’s one of those structures that you know is big in theory, but when you actually stand in front of it, you’re a bit shocked. After the shock wore off the first time I saw the Parthenon, I was complete amazed that a group of people over 2,000 years ago had the resources and the capability of building such an enormous and intricate structure.

6. Does this monument feel relevant to you as a Nashville resident?

I think the Parthenon is awesome; it was one of the first things I visited when I moved to Nashville, and I’ve been there several times. I prefer to think of Nashville as its older nickname, “The Athens of the South,” rather than the newer and more common nickname of “Music City.” “Athens of the South” puts more focus on Nashville’s many educational institutions, publishing houses, architecture, and culture rather than just the country music scene, and the Parthenon is a great representation of that. The Parthenon is something truly unique to Nashville, and to me speaks to aspirations that rise above the blandness of everyday life.

Art around Belmont

When I visited Belmont's campus for the first time, I was a 17-year-old entering my senior year of high school. It was 1996, and I was in Nashville visiting friends; around 10 at night they decided I should see Belmont's campus. We drove through central campus on Circle Drive, which goes past the mansion, the fountain surrounded by marble statues, the rose garden, and on around - passing more statues, as well as gazebos. I think the appropriate phrase for how I felt that night was "love at first sight."

Aside from the 8 months between my undergrad graduation and my employment at Belmont, I've pretty much been on campus every week since fall of 1997. The sense of wonder I felt the first time I saw the campus never went away completely, and I still love walking slowly through campus and taking in the combination of buildings and landscaping and art.

In fact, these three pictures were taken in the past year - sometimes while walking across campus on a work errand, I can't help but stop and take a picture! A separate entry is needed for pictures of the building I work in. I'll do that next. :)

The below pictures, I mostly took during my first few years of employment. They make me happy. Four of them are printed at 11x17 and on display above my desk, making the office a little more fun.

Children's Museums

I ran across this article about children's museums today in Huffington Post:
First the Children

Excerpt from the article (bold emphasis mine):

"More and more Children's museums are focusing on ways to provide the new thinking skills and the pathways to thinking creatively which the 21st century workplace demands . . . The idea of collaborating to engage the larger community in rethinking about the importance of arts and culture to foster creativity and innovation is best found in an organization called Thriving Minds (formerly called The Dallas Arts Learning Initiative) in Dallas, Texas. Now more than ever,' their website proclaims, 'creativity and imagination are an important part of helping children learn to think critically, solve problems and express themselves -- all necessary to compete in today's global community.'"

(Note: photo above is Jake at the children's museum I'm about to talk about, in 2010.)

Being in a college art class has me thinking a lot about the role of art in our lives and our world - art not being narrowly defined here as a painting or photograph, but creative interaction and experiences. Children's museums provide a space and opportunity to be creative in ways that most children don't usually have access to.

Murfreesboro (in Rutherford County, southeast of Nashville) has a great children's museum - The Discovery Center - that we really enjoy. Jake went to a summer day-camp there last year, and is signed up for one in July as well. We have attended birthday parties at The Discovery Center, as well as visited with his 1st grade class.

I don't think I've stopped before to think about how rare it is to have such an amazing space for children just a few miles from our house. The Discovery Center is a privately funded non-profit institution, which to me means there are lots of people in my area that place a high priority on art and discovery in children's lives! (Yay, Rutherford County!)

(The pictures in the scrapbook page are from a birthday party in 2007.)

Seattle Art

I visited my friend Monica in Seattle in May, and I was happy to see so much public art. Monica said that Seattle makes a conscious effort to include art in public spaces.

That, friends, is just awesome.

The first picture, I took at the top of the stairs at a light rail station - a very cool surprise on the way to jump on public transit!

(P.S. Nashville? We could use a light-rail system around here, yo.)


This piece was outside the light rail station closest to Monica's condo.


And this picture I took from the light rail as we zoomed through the city. :)

Art Art Art

Thought I'd start out my blog for art class with some awesome art that Jake drew as a Kindergartner:

For those not familiar with Star Wars, this is - of course - Anakin Skywalker and then Darth Vader. Hmm, so really it's a life progression statement . . . ;)