(Part 2 in “Seeing Lessons” here)
In the high-speed life, we almost seem to have lost our ability to see.
Life for many fast-paced families is, after all, speeding past in a blur. Are we losing the habit of attention? How can we make careful, clear, focused observations when our eyes are darting from the cell phone, to the BlackBerry, to the speedometer?
It’s as if we need seeing lessons.
A post the other day about slowing down to focus (and rushing through the Louvre) got me to thinking about learning to appreciate art.
"The Circus," Georges Pierre Seurat (Musee d'Orsay, Paris)
Art, I think, can teach us to see again.
Years ago I stumbled upon a blog about “art…parenting…life…and trying to piece it all together,” called Mental Tesserae. The blogger is an art instructor and a mom. She really does blend thoughts about art, parenting and life in her posts. Mental Tesserae has provided many amusing and memorable art lessons.
Take, for example, this post she created about Magritte’s “Man with a newspaper.” She helps me really look at the artwork. Then she helps me think about it. She personalizes it with a story from her own life, and I leave her blog empowered and capable of appreciating it more than I ever would have on my own.
This article in the Wall Street Journal a couple of weekends ago showcased Gericault’s “The Raft of the Medusa,” providing historical and artistic background that gave me a greater understanding of its importance and impact on art in the 19th century. I’m starting to look for tools like this, written by experts who can provide the “anatomy of a classic” for ordinary readers like me.
Also, Mental Multivitamin posts Fine Art Friday briefly highlights various ways she is exploring art by seeing, learning and doing. I’m inspired by her autodidact approach.
In the spirit of an autodidact, I found this site geared for kids that invites you to click through a fun exercise, something like a game, to learn about art.
KidsArt has a list of famous artwork to click on and learn about.
[UPDATE: Just added,with thanks to Ann Voskamp for this biblical art link]
Or just visiting various collections at galleries around the world online gives us plenty of artwork to study. We can visit:
- The National Gallery of Art
- The Art Institute of Chicago
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Indianapolis Museum of Art
- Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
- The Louvre
At the Louvre site, you can enjoy an online tour of its most famous masterpieces, or browse through what it has posted online of its 35,000 works of art. Pick a department to narrow things down.
These tools help me spend a little time studying and thinking about details I might have missed on my own.
Detail from "The Circus," George Pierre Seurat (Musee d'Orsay, Paris)
They provide some lessons in how to see.
I want to learn to see everything more closely and clearly, and art is a place to practice.
(Photo credit: Ann Kroeker, taken at the Musee d’Orsay, 1991)
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9 comments
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August 27, 2009 at 5:51 am
Marci@OvercomingBusy
Oh how I want to slow down to see and appreciate. Not just art , but my family, God’s creation, our blessings. Thanks for the wonderful reminder…and great links. My daughter will love these!
August 27, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Chele
So so true Ann! I personally love to slow down with the kids to point out the beauty of places like Charleston SC. The homes, outside and in. It helps us slow down and take it all in!
August 27, 2009 at 1:00 pm
annkroeker
Marci & Chele: I thought I might do a series of “Seeing Lessons” and offer more ideas for how we can learn to see again. Also, I think a blogger has posted some wonderful, spiritual thoughts on this topic, as well, that I can link to. So keep your eyes open for more!
August 27, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Learning to See «
[...] and spiritual by being overly practical, but when I launched a series at NotSoFastBook.com about how to practice “seeing,” I offered art as an [...]
August 28, 2009 at 1:34 am
Joni
Loved this! Great ideas, Ann. I am a huge art lover and could spend hours in a museum if allowed. Of course, slowing my kids down to really see is a work in itself! Happy day to you…
September 1, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Meet a Seeing Mentor «
[...] first was entitled simply “Seeing Lessons” and talked about how art can be an entree for those of us who want to regain our ability to [...]
September 4, 2009 at 12:11 am
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September 4, 2009 at 7:55 pm
mrsduenes06
Taking watercolor lessons once taught me the power of “seeing.” It wasn’t until the instructor stopped to point out the different shades in a cloud, and how certain shades always occur at certain points in the cloud, that I was able to fully appreciate the wonder and magic of that deceptively simple object. I recall later walking out of the post office, and stopping to gaze in wonder at the complexity of some clouds in a sunset. I remarked to the instructor in the next class that a large part of good painting or drawing must be good seeing, and he replied that yes, that was a huge part of it.
Another thing I learned when I was working through the book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,” by Betty Edwards, was that often what we think we see is really just what our minds put there because they haven’t bothered to pay attention to what’s really before us. This was in the context of drawing an object accurately, but I realized that we far too often do that with people as well, jumping to conclusions or making snap judgements of someone without really stopping to listen to what they’re saying or “seeing” who they really are.
September 7, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Seeing Lessons: Meet a Mentor «
[...] realized a series on learning to see would benefit our slowing, so I launched the first post, entitled “Seeing Lessons,” with suggestions for looking at [...]