The January 2012 Tutorial Discussion

[Gare]

Thank you, Boy—

It’s entirely possible that I have more talent as a teacher than an artist!

We’ll see, and I will indeed pace myself on TalkGraphics. This month is a lot of catharsis, sort of getting my focus and methodology up front so members will know what to expect. I’m really into art “recipes”, procedures, because if you leave a great idea to grow on its own, it might comes out fine, or it might bomb, or you might get a create idea out there that’s illustrated beautifully, but then not be able to repeat your success a second time.

And not know why.

Art is a lot of things and one of them is a process. I had a wonderful professor of Basic Design in college, and he convinced the class that you always begin with an idea, then a system to realize the idea. And the system requires as much attention to detail as the finished piece. Then we needed to gather the right tools to create our artwork, and our professor told us that sometimes you need to make your own tools, to then go on and make your artwork.

Most of this is lost today with digital design programs, although there are still a few left that let you design a brush, and then use the brush to realize a piece.

I thought the Wikipedia entry was interesting; seems that at least once in everyone’s life, we are asked to define Art. Wikipedia did what it’s designed to do: to provide an unbiased, clinical definition of the subject. There are some key terms that resonate with me in its definition, such as “deliberate” and “influence”.



I’m going to toss out two anecdotes today, because I’m too lazy to write on a topic. But they’re really good, relevant anecdotes, and I’d like everyone to think about them:

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I had a mid-term in Art History in college, the professor was Ludwig Stein, and he was one of I’d say the four people in my life who have influenced my approach to artwork and design. The “blue books” as they were called, were passed out to the students, and then Ludwig revealed the exam up front on a projector. The screen said only one thing, “What is Art?”…and we had forty minutes to complete the exam.

Fortunately, there were only a few students who didn’t “get it”, who couldn’t think outside of the box. They sat there scribbling a thorough definition, really sweating their work, and when they got their exam back, they learned that they had failed.

In an art class, if a teacher asks you a question, rarely is there a literal, precise answer, due to the nature of the subject. One fellow classmate wrote “Art who?”; he got an A minus. Someone else who was sick and had to mail the teacher his blue book rolled it up and put a frankfurter inside, with mustard and a bun. She got an A.

I got an A-, because I waffled a little, I was scared to go through with my reply. I wrote “Art is an event.”, then walked up front, handed it to Professor Stein, and told him to read it in front of me. He did, I took it back, tore it in two, and handed it back to him.

“What is Art?” doesn’t really command an explanation or a definition. It wants an example.


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The was a movement in art called Dadaism, which started in Germany just before WWI, about 1910. The Dada movement was an artistic experiment among artists, to see whether they could destroy art; whether they could produce something that totally lacked any quality of aesthetics that are at the heart of art. Look it up on Wikipedia sometime.

It was an interesting thing for an artist to do, to explore, wasn’t it?

Guess what? They failed. You cannot “kill Art.” It’s like trying to kill God, or kill love. You can’t apply a real world action to something that transcends the real world.



Art is that large, it really is. Unless you’re in a sensory deprivation tank or something, avoiding art is like avoiding oxygen.

I’m hoping this will put what you do with Xara into some perspective the next time you launch it!

—Gary