I found Arnheim's discussion of artists in this chapter very interesting, particularly the part where he discussed how an artist is able to express "the nature and meaning of an experience" while "the non-artist is left 'speechless' by the fruits of his sensitive wisdom" (169). He goes on to say that the non-artist "can express himself, more or less articulately, but not his experience." He then says, "During the moments in which a human being is an artist, he finds shape for the bodiless structure of what he has felt" (169). I find this very interesting, being an artist myself. I have always taken great joy in utilizing art to express things that I cannot say in words. It is like the Georgia O'Keeffe quote I used in my first post, "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way...things I had no words for." Sometimes I can put an idea to words, but it is better expressed in a painting. I think this is interesting when thinking of things like art therapy and analyzing children's art. The lovely thing about being a child is that no matter how "good" of an artist you are, you are encouraged to draw and your work is praised. I wish that it stayed that way throughout our entire lives, because I think that visual expression is a gift, and there should be no measure of "good" and "bad;" we should all feel free to use art to express ourselves.
Another quote I thought of during this reading was one by Pablo Picasso: "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child." This is especially interesting after this week's reading focusing on children's art. Did Picasso really paint like a child? Was that literally his goal, or were there just certain elements from children's art that he was attracted to? Clearly after this week's reading, what is going through a child's brain while drawing is very different than what is going through an adult's brain, so perhaps as an adult, it is nearly impossible to truly draw like a child. I just thought this was an interesting quote and one to ponder what exactly Picasso meant by that.
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I was really interested in Danielle's discussion of the power of art. I have recently been thinking about art therapy functions and in fact how profoundly powerful it has the potential to be. I am also interested in how this correlates to working with children in the arts. It is true usually that no matter if you are on the track of becoming an artist as a child you are encouraged to express yourself through this medium. Somewhere along the line of development we get an idea of what is good and what is not. Then I suppose, once we figure out that we are no good by some standard we stop drawing or painting or singing or dancing. I wish that there was no standard. I feel that we are not encouraged to pursue this expression if we are "no good at it."
I have been doing a lot of research about dance and expressive therapies and I am participating in a dance therapy class. Recently we have been doing this exercise where a group of people go into the center of the circle and do a series of small movements or poses. The observers are asked to make comments on what they have seen, but only after the movers have made their comments. The observers' comments are not about judgement or critique. They are simply stating what they saw and then sometimes how it made them feel. This is an interesting setting to be in regards to movement. It is interesting for me to think of the differences in my experiences of a space like that vs. a dance performance space or a compositional critique space.
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