Not Sh*tting Where You Eat

Minnie Minoso, oil on canvas 2009

So it has occurred to me already that blogging about what I teach for my Introduction to Art Concepts class for Santa Ana College is terribly didactic and, well, kind of boring for the audience I hope is tuning in. And I use the term “audience” pretty much euphemistically, because, well, lets face it, this blog is basically a conversation with myself, isn’t it? I was hoping for some feedback about what and how I teach, but without that I’m just talking about fire, the wheel, and not shitting where you eat in terms of art. Important stuff, no doubt, and there’s some choice stuff I think, but I’ve put out the call to what all you out there in internetland think, and have heard the cyber-equivalent of crickets. In a classroom I can wait this out and have a captive audience, but this internet’s a tougher room. Right now we’re covering formal language and principles of design, as well as terminology like “representational”, “abstract”, and the like. I get a real sense of the excitement level dropping in the students with this stuff; referring to things like line, shape, color, unity, scale, emphasis, etc., can suck the poetry right out of a room.

The next thing we begin to go over is a bit more interesting, the specific mediums of art itself. What does “drawing” really mean? Or “painting”? Or “photography”? Like I said, ground level stuff, but still worth returning too. Not so much categories, as sets of issues; I try to show sculptures with drawings issues, photos with painting issues, paintings with sculpture issues, video art with drawing issues...you get the idea.

Besides all that, the new art season is upon us. Saw some stuff. Best so far? Baker’s Dozen at the Torrance Art Museum. Galleries? Francesca Gabbiani at Patrick Painter. That’s just so far. But you know what event I’m looking forward too? This:

And you're required to attend. This will be on the final.