Wednesday January 9, 2002

Let the book begin.

Who is this book for?

It is for people that share something in common with me - an interest in learning more about Art. I consider myself to be a virtual novice when it comes to Art. Although I have visited a few museums and art galleries in my lifetime, I have never seriously studied, in any fashion, this field of human endeavor. I plan to rectify this during the next few months, and by providing a journal of my journey, perhaps encourage others to embark on a similar journey.

Who am I?

I am a professor of Education at the University of Lethbridge, male and 59 years old. I am about to embark on a 6-month Study Leave, much of which will be spent in Australia near the north coast region of New South Wales. While much of my time will be spent on professional activities related to my interest in developing online courses, and in conducting research into how Information Technologies are affecting university professors, I also wish to devote about 2 hours a day for about 5 days a week to learning more about Art. I view my background in this area to be minimal and as such consider myself to be a novice and a beginner.

Depending on the topic, we are all beginners. You are welcome to join the Fellowship of the Art Quest (FAQ). The only prerequisite is interest. This is the only prerequisite for learning more about any topic. That and time.

My time will be spent on two types of activities: reading, and perhaps discussing what I have read with others, and composing this record of my efforts. Assuming I am successful, and I have every intention of being successful, then this record may be viewed as the preliminary makings of a path into a new country. Others may wish to follow the path, or they may strike out on their own path, using this record as a catalyst for their own journey, and as something that they may wish to use as a comparison with their own progress. There are many different ways to travel, many different places to linger, and many different destinations.

Background

The idea of a book, and a deliberate attempt to create something that might be interest to some one else, is only about an hour old. I am clearly both optimistic and excited about trying this idea out. I wish you were here to share in my initial enthusiasm. Such enthusiasm is normal when beginning a new journey. The real test is what happens after the trip is a few weeks old. We shall see.

I really began the idea of learning more about Art about a week ago. I had purchased a book called "artwise: Visual Arts 7 - 10" a few months ago while in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation shop in the central business district of Lismore, NSW. I was in Lismore during the first 6 months of 2001 on a Visiting Research Fellowship at Southern Cross University, and had a habit of visiting the local bookstores on a fairly regular basis. I finally found the time to have a look at the book during the Christmas break. The book was written for students in grades 7 - 10 in New South Wales. I was immediately attracted to the book because of its overall design. Since I am new to this topic, this seems like a perfectly appropriate place to begin.

I have been devoting about an hour each day, well at least on most days, to reading about a particular artist and one piece of work produced by that person. Thus I began with Polykleitos, then Giotto, Masaccio, Raphael, Bernini, Matisse and Picasso. All of these artists had two pages each, including a color photograph of at least one of their works. Of these seven names, only three (Raphael, Matisse and Picasso) were familiar to me, but even with these three I would have been hard pressed to say much about either their lives or their works. The descriptor "beginner" flatters me.

Having not only read about these seven artists, but having spent about an extra hour on the Internet locating web sites for each artist that provides additional information on them and their work, as served to increase my interest in learning more. I am not restricted to just the material in the book, I have access to a fantastic amount of additional information, created by a wide variety of individuals who have a much deeper understanding and appreciation of Art than I do.

The next few artists in the artwise book are Australian. Fair enough. However it piques my own sense of nationalism to wonder whether I might add a branch to my learning to include Canadian artists. Even here, my knowledge is very limited, and the opportunities for learning are wide open. I like Robert Bateman's paintings (I even have one) and am aware of the Group of Seven and Emily Carr, and if I search my memory I may recall names like Paul Kane and Cornelius Kreigoff, as well as Keirstead (from the area near Kingston, Ontario where we lived for 14 years). Not a very long list, nor a very deep one.

This morning I decide to see if I can find a good book on well-known Canadian artists. I don't see anything that catches my eye when searching the Indigo/Chapters bookstore website. It then occurs to me that a friend who I happened to see the previous day in one of the university corridors might be able to help me. I give Fred Greene a phone call and he is able to find time for a quick cup of coffee. As soon as I mention that I am looking for a good book on Canadian artists, he spins around in his chair and pulls a tattered book off the shelf. "Here is what you want," he exclaims, handing me "A Concise History of Canadian Painting" by Dennis Reid. He is right. The book looks exactly like what I had in mind. The book was published in 1988, so I may have a little difficulty finding a copy for myself, but Fred is confident that it is available.

After the coffee is finished I wander over to the university bookstore to see what I might find. The book is not there, but I do find 5 other small books that attract my attention. One of my genuine weaknesses is one for books. I like books, and I like to buy books. I like the convenience of having them nearby, where I can access them when the occassion presents itself. Two of the books are for children: "A First Book of Canadian Art" by Richard Rhodes and "Emily Carr" by Rosemary Neering. Using the same logic that led me to buy "artwise", I purchase these as well as three others. Two are part of the series, Barron's Art Handbooks. These are fairly compact introductory books that are color coded into series such as Red: art genres, Yellow: art history, Green: art techniques and Purple: are media. They had one from the Green series on "Illustration Techniques" and one from the Red series on "The Nude". These both look like excellent additions to my library, since they will give me more detail than what I will find in the children's books. The fifth book is called "A Short Guide to Writing About Art" by Sysvan Barnet. This is when I first have the idea about writing about my learning experiences. I have yet to open this book, but I assume it will have many suggestions that may prove useful to me in the future as I continue this venture.

I arrive home, excited about the way the morning has gone. I access the Internet and discover that finding the Reid book may prove to be a bit of a challenge. I put that idea on the back burner for the moment, and decide to drive over town to see if the Chapters store has either the Reid book (a long shot, given that it is not available on the web) or more of those books from the Barron's series. In both cases the answer is no, but as is usually the case, once I am in the proper section of the bookstore, I find other books that look excellent. In this case it is another series of small books published by Taschen publishers, each about a specific artist and including a number of bright images of their work. I buy 5! Michelangelo and Leonardo, because I know of them and because the images are spectacular; Matisse and Picasso, because I have recently learned a bit about them and am ready to learn a bit more; and Dali, because I have liked many of his paintings in the past. What a day. I now have 10 more books in my library, all waiting to be read. The latter 5 are quite manageable, so I will remove my fingers from the keyboard and begin reading one. Michelangelo seems like a good way to begin.

I have spent at least 2 hours this morning related to learning more about Art. This included one cup of coffee, visits to two bookstores, the purchase of 10 new books and the creation of this electronic page. A very good day.

E-mail: dale.burnett@uleth.ca