Can art be taught?
One of my favorite artist/teachers, Richard Schmid, tells us that most anyone can learn to mix colors, and the dexterity it takes to make a brush stroke is less than writing ones signature. But is that all that it takes make art? Of course not.
A choir director I know, after working on piece for weeks, told his choir, "Now that we know the words and the notes it is time to make music." Making music and art are gifts that not everyone is blessed with.
About Goal Setting
Artist, Romare Beardon, said, "I don't believe in goals; goals are for a football team. An artist is just seeking what he might find." Now he might be on to something, but the problem is not setting goals. The problem is not being totally aware of the joy, pain, failures and triumphs which are part of the journey in reaching your goals. We also should exercise our freedom to change our goals as we make new discoveries along the way. It would be ashame, especially for artists, to be blinded to new paths simply to achieve a singular goal.
Jazz musician Arte Shaw said the most disappointing time of his life was when he achieved a goal. For those of us who need goals to motivate us, Arte's advise was to aim higher than you think is possible and savor every moment of the journey.
Thank you Alyson Stanfield at ArtBizBlog for prompting this post.
3 comments:
For setting goals you might try out this web-based application:
http://www.gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts (GTD), use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version is available too.
As with the last update, now you can add or invite Contacts, and share your Projects and Contexts with them.
Hope you like it.
A good art teacher can teach us technique quicker than we might learn it on our own, but no teacher can create genius where there is none. It's kind of like music - anyone, with enough hard work and istruction, can learn to play the notes. But can they make music? Can they play well enough to make you feel it? That's something that can't be taught.
I think deep inside there is more than intuition but the "knowing" that we are an artist; hence the expression of being born with it. Learning skills, studying, and goal setting whether written or unwritten are part of the complete picture as we don't aspire to just be but to journey, if even to the unknown.
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