Children: Artists not craftsmen

Search for the Real: Hans Hofmann

I love my granddaughter's art. And make no mistake, it is art. It is pure art. Craft is beyond her reach. Art, as the term is used here, is creativity, while craft refers to skill.

Think of Hans Hofmann, the well respected artist and teacher who wrote a small but important book on art: The Search for the Real, or think of R.G. Collingwood, the British philosopher who wrote The Principles of Art — click the links and buy the books.

Hofmann is a quick read. Collingwood is a struggle. Clearly, go with Hofmann first.

At the age of ten I took my first art class at what was then the Willistead Art Gallery in Windsor. The classes were held in the coach house of a former estate designed by Albert Kahn, the famous Detroit, Michigan, architect.

The place had great atmosphere. Art and craft were melded together in the amazing home commissioned by the second son of whisky baron Hiram Walker.

As a student, I was far more craftsman than artist. I had good control for a young boy but I prostituted my skill. I used my skill to make quick sketches of Mickey Mouse to sell for a nickle to other students.

Drawing Mickey is easy. Just think circles. I would have taught the other kids how to draw good Mickeys but the art instructor shut down my budding business. Drawing Mickey was not art, at least he was not my art. I was told to leave Mickey to Walt Disney and his cartoon-making factory.

At that time I understood that drawing Mickey was not art. What I failed to understand was that drawing a real mouse was also not art. As long as I was a slave to reality, I was not an artist but a craftsman.

Hans Hofmann tells us: 

• "Nature’s purpose in relation to the visual arts is to provide stimulus – not imitation. . . . "
• "The creative process lies not in imitating . . . "

The camera has removed the tyranny of imitation from art but not the pressures of reality. Ink on a page is real. If you question this statement, try and wash the inks stains from a kid's clothing.

When a child puts crayon to paper, the result is real. No one should look at a child's work and say dismissively, "It's all scribbles."

Truth be told, a child's scribbles are more "real" than some very popular "art." I'm thinking here of the work of Thomas Kinkade. Although I admit Kinkade was both artist and craftsman, I think of him more as an entertainer than artist, more magician than painter.

The Treachery of Images: This is not a pipe.

Rene Magrite painted a pipe and declared, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe": This is not a pipe. No, it's not; It's a painting of a pipe. No one can take a child's art and declare, "This is not a scribble."

Fiona, 3, dips her largest brush into a pot of purple paint and declares, "This is a large colour. It needs a large space." I watch in amazement as she proceeds to dominate the white paper with broad, wavy strokes of purple.

When she puts a dab of green at the bottom, I ask her why that colour and why there. She tells me her painting needs something right there and a small green circle is "perstick." Fiona's way of saying "perfect."

Scribbles? Yes — thoughtful scribbles. These are real scribbles not like, I must confess, my scribbles. I only paint imitation scribbles. My scribbles are not honest scribbles like those done by little children.

C'est un griffonnage. Vraiment: It is a scribble. Really. And art.

Why is this important? Does any of this having any bearing on the everyday world? As a matter of fact it does.

Recalls Clement Greenberg and the David Smith's sculptures.

I stumbled on a post on the usually excellent blog Couturier Mommy. The author worked out a method of commandeering her children's art and corrupting it with her own preference for straight-edge design. She sticks masking tape to her children's work surfaces before they begin. When they are finished, she peels away the tape and peels away some of their work. "My kids make Real Art!!" she exclaims.

Yes, they do. And mom destroys it. Ceci n'est pas un griffonnage. (The blogger behind Couturier Mommy has commented on my criticism. I've pasted her polite remarks in the comments area below this post.)

"Picasso, Braque, Mondrian, Miro, Kandinsky, Brancusi, even Klee, Matisse and Cézanne derive their chief inspiration from the medium they work in. The excitement of their art seems to lie most of all in its pure preoccupation with the invention and arrangement of spaces, surfaces, shapes, colors, etc. . . . "

— Clement Greenberg

If you must have realism, there are still lots of artists working in the realistic vein, although few artists are slaves to realism today. As Fiona told me, and I am sure Hans Hofmann would have agreed, strawberries may be red in the field but they can be purple in a painting.

Grampa Bill hams it up for Fiona.

For realism, why not get an inexpensive digital camera. Satisfy your craving for realism by making your own art. I'm sure there's lots of stuff to be found in the world to excite your artistic sense.

And don't be too frightened to let a child use your point and shoot. Teach them to keep the camera strap wrapped around a wrist or arm for a little insurance against dropping, and you'll be amazed at their photography. Fiona, 3, regularly borrows my small camera.

I've encouraged a friend, who loves both realism in art and orchids, to blend his two loves and shoot pictures of his beautiful flowers. Doing this is a great way to learn to appreciate colour, form and perspective on a flat surface. It may even open one's eyes to the wonders of abstract art.

Scavenger hunt sweetens Easter

Fiona has found another paper Easter egg clue.

Andrea is a fine aunt. She knows how to entertain her niece. She pulls out all the stops when it comes to three-year-old Fiona. Sunday Andrea staged an Easter egg scavenger hunt that kept the little girl, forgive me, hopping.

Another egg clue: This one under the fish bowl.

The big problem with the more traditional Easter egg hunts are the eggs: All chocolate, sugar and fat. Watching excited children find the treats is fun but watching them munching through that mountain of chocolate, sugar and fat is a horror show.

Andrea had a solution: A scavenger hunt. All the excitement without all the junk food.

Andrea hid a dozen or so brightly coloured, egg-shaped pieces of paper around the home. She placed one on the fireplace mantle and hid another in the guest bedroom, Fiona's when she sleeps over.

Each paper egg carried a clue as to the location of the next paper egg. One egg had a picture of a barbecue pasted to it. One look and Fiona was off to the patio barbecue. Finding an image of a fish had Fiona inspecting the bowl holding Phoebe her pet Guppy.

Finding the paper egg clues takes time and thinking. The scavenger hunt delivers lots of fun and creates wonderful memories to savour in the future. The Easter basket found at the end of the hunt can be a rich mix of stuff and not overly heavy on the chocolate eggs.

It wasn't a room where I'd have hidden a clue but it worked. Glad the egg is paper.

Life never stops giving

"We seem to have reached the age where life stops giving us things and starts taking them away."

- Jim Broadbent as Dean Charles Stanforth in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

I'm not a fan of almost any film that is connected to Steven Spielsberg. I didn't catch the Raiders series with Indiana Jones when it was in the theatres. Today a couple of the films were on cable and I watched one. When I heard the quote that is the lede for this post, I shook my head.

Life is always giving. It is also always taking but I want to focus on the giving with this post.

I have lost my mother, my father, both sets of grandparents, all my aunts and all my uncles. Yet, I am not alone. And new faces keep arriving on the scene.

Eloise loves visiting her grandparents and all her grandparents love seeing her.

My two granddaughters with another on the way are, for me, life's way of saying the giving never stops, nor do the smiles stop coming.

;-)

The art of kids is inspirational: Grab a crayon

Sunshine after a rainfall: water colour on heavy paper by Fiona, abstract artist.

I like her work. I think she's a fair artist. But, I don't know how long she can continue cranking out work of this high calibre. She is, after all, only 3-years-old. She may outgrow her love of the abstract.

Floating: water colour on heavy paper by Fiona, abstract artist

The California hard edge painter Karl Benjamin was an elementary school teacher before he was a famous artist. Required to teach one period of art each week, he told his class to take crayon to paper and "Fill up the space with pretty colours . . ."

Inspired by the work done by the young kids, within a couple of years he was deep into his own experiments with paint and colour. Despite his art world success, Benjamin continued to teach elementary school for 30 years before becoming an art professor in the '80s.

I think I know how Benjamin felt. The work of young kids really is inspirational. Go on, grab some paint or settle for simple crayons: Crayola makes 'em in an absolutely amazing array of colours.

Flower on fridge: A work featuring mixed technique.

Blackfriars Bridge: Hasn't it earned its retirement?

When I moved to London in the '70s, Blackfriars Bridge had a 5 tonnes rating.

Read about London oldest bridge and decide whether or not you agree: Retire the aging structure. Remove it from its present location. Restore it to its original beauty. And re-purpose it as a pedestrian and cyclist only bridge.

Click the link to read the complete story on London Daily Photo.

Globe & Mail apology over Kaetlyn Osmond photo is unacceptable

Globe and Mail front page. Offended?

As a former staff photographer at a daily paper in Ontario, I am not surprised at the kerfuffle over The Globe and Mail front page photo.

The reaction of some readers was to be expected but what is surprising is the oh-so-wimpy collapse of The Globe. They made no attempt what-so-ever to defend their choice of front page picture.

Sylvia Stead, The Globes' public editor, wrote: "The readers and I both thought the photo could be embarrassing to anyone . . . " That's just creepy.

When 17-year-old figure skater Kaetlyn Osmond initially saw the photo large on The Globe front page she tweeted "I really like that picture : p."

Reading this, some reported that the teen tweeted that she liked the shot but others were confused by the emoticon; The "p" represents her tongue hanging out suggesting sarcasm. (Think "Blaaa!")

A few hours later Osmond clarified her take on the image and its play. She tweeted:

O.K. It is now clear. Kaetlyn Osmond may be only 17 but she is an adult. Sadly, the public editor at The Globe and Mail is not.

As a former newspaper photographer, I learned to watch for images that would inflame certain readers but it was impossible to catch all. And I never ceased to be amazed at what some people found offensive. One of the more common approaches taken by these all-too-common attacks was posted as a comment after The Globe apology.

An offended reader wrote: "I just think the use of the picture was calculated and they thought they wud (sic) sell more papers with a picture like that instead of well written and researched stories. That's what bothers me."

I literally cannot tell you how many times I got letters expressing just that sentiment. The first time I got a letter accusing me of picking a picture to "sell more papers", I thought the writer was just a nut. Over the years, and after many letters, I realized a large segment of the population saw all newspapers in the same sad, warped way.

Once, I shot a picture of two girls lying on a large, round, concrete structure catching some late spring sun. They were still in school, this was clear from their uniforms, and they were trying to get a bit of an early start at a suntan. They had their shirt sleeves up and skirts pulled up just above their knees. Their arms and legs touched the arc of the circular concrete form.

I found a vantage point that allowed me to shoot almost straight down. The composition reminded me of the famous Vitruvian Man drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.

I loved the picture of the two girls. It ran on one of the section fronts. Clearly the page editor liked it too. It brought praise from many folk who recognized my inspiration in my image.

It also brought me a very long and nasty letter from a local psychologist, angered by the publication of a picture rich with sexual imagery. The inclusion of the school uniforms clinched the matter in the mind of the good doctor.

I made sure that letter never appeared in the paper. That psychologist took a simple, lovely moment, a celebration of the approach of summer, and made the moment dirty. I kept that letter out of the paper; I did not want to sully the pleasure those kids were enjoying from being featured in the paper.

I wonder if Sylvia Stead is embarrassed. I confess I felt her public reaction to an innocent photo could be embarrassing to anyone . . . "

Flu vaccine myths

The flu vaccine does not always impart immunity to the flu. According to a recent New York Times article the vaccine fails to protect about 44 percent of the people given the shot.

But, I knew this. It is one of the arguments put forth by the anti-flu-vaccine folk. On the surface it looks like one mark against the vaccine and one reason not to bother getting it. The NYT article points out the weakness of this argument.

When more people are immunized, fewer get sick and the chances of keeping everyone else healthy improve, a phenomenon called "herd immunity."

If you'd like to read the entire NYT article, here is a link to: Myths about the flu vaccine.

I have a failing heart. I have an ICD implanted in my chest with an additional pacemaker function. I would never fail to get my annual flu shot. Never!

A majority of North Americans fail to get a flu shot. They have a variety of reasons for failing to act but all their excuses have one thing in common: They are myths.

Here are six of the more common myths about the flu debunked.

1. You can catch the flu from the vaccine: No. This doesn't happen.
   
   
2. Healthy people don't need to be vaccinated: No. Everyone benefits. Think herd immunity.
   
   
3. The flu is just a bad cold: No. Tens of thousands of people die and hundreds of thousands are hospitalized every year suffering from the flu.
   
   
4. You can't spread the flu if you're feeling well: Yes, you can. Up to 30 percent of infected people exhibit no symptoms.
   
   
5. You don't need to get a flu shot every year: Yes, you do. The virus responsible for the flu changes from year to year.
   
   
6. If you have a high fever with the flu that lasts more than a day or two, antibiotics may be necessary: The operative word here is "may". Antibiotics don't work against viral infections but an opportunistic bacterial infection occurring as a complication of the flu, may well mean antibiotics are in order.
   

Separating fact from fiction is getting harder and harder, thanks in part to the Internet. If you disagree with any or all of the above, here are some links supporting my post. Please get a flu shot; If not for yourself, for the benefit of your friends and family.

• 10 flu myths: Harvard Health Publications
• Flu Myths and Legends: Mayo Clinic Dispels Common Flu Misconceptions
• 6 Flu Vaccine Myths: My Health News Daily
• Fight the flu: Public Health Agency of Canada
• Flu Myths and Legends: Science Daily