1/7/10

The center of me followed her, but I was left with the shell of me.
Extremely loud and incredibly close



I was so touched by the sign above,
' please protect/take good care of plants and flowers on the Path of Philosophy'
(there's a path in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto), written by a school kid.
There's something so beautiful and liberating about the handwriting and the way children draw.
Sadly as we get older, we tend to lose those qualities.
I've been thinking of art education lately.
Do we consciously or unconsciously try to draw 'better'?
Is learning to draw as precisely as possible really necessary?
I don't agree with the idea that the word 'right or wrong' exists in drawings
or any form of so-called art in general as some people say.

14 comments:

marie said...

i agree. i dont think art education should be about being 'better'. but learning to do things more precisely makes you more aware, which makes you more free to be imprecise when you want to

yu yasutake said...

hm. but it s really not exciting to do the measurement and think of overall balance while observing and drawing things. i think art college should b a place to help me explore the field and express myself better rather than learning to draw precisely.

marie said...

i think maybe it should do both (is that too much to ask?). i used to hate long life drawing classes, but i felt like it was 'good for me' somehow (this is strange i know)

gina said...

For me, drawing classes were about learning how to see. Style is another matter altogether and for what it's worth, there are plenty of folks imitating what we consider childlike, or naive. Just sayin'.

hiki said...

I agree that there should be right or wrong in drawings and I personally believe that art or design is something that can be "taught" (well except the basic stuff) but is something we need to explore by ourselves. This sign is a true beauty and a perfect piece of art.

And thanks for your comment on my post, you met makoto kagoshima!? That is so awesome! but am sorry to hear that he's not happy about people putting the images of his works on blogs because so many people outside japan loves his works and they like to see them. I wonder if i should take the images off from my blog?? Anyway, i'm not surprised that he actually was a nice guy :)

Claudia said...

I feel that some sort of "right" and "wrong" can be used as a teacher but that more often than not it is used incorrectly and this results in the feelings of inhibition and failure that cause most adults to "grow out of" art.

That really is a lovely sign; the only sign I've seen attached to a tree like that was one in Beijing that asked passerbys not to poop on the tree. I... didn't know that had to be asked, haha.

karin said...

Yes, you can see that best in the way the children do it, as you write it here. When the adults start to "teach" them how to do things correct, they learn something, but they also loose a lot.

Make it Easy said...

that sign is so beautiful. such kind and truthful words by the innocence of a child. to know that the child who wrote took such thought and care into it...

what you said about art...i like that

yu yasutake said...

hiki: oh i didnt mean that you should take the pics off from your blog. Its just that when i met him, i asked if i could photograph some of his work and he said 'if its not for blogs or things like that:)' but anyhow, he's a nice person and i agree that many people should know about his work, right?

artandghosts louise said...

very glad to have located your blog.

mizu designs said...

Ahhh- tetsu gaku no michi :) My old neighbourhood. Thanks for the lovely pics. It's makes me all natsukashi.

Anonymous said...

Been thinking about your question about necessity of education. and agree with your remark about the wrong or right, I sometimes think that if you put a law somewhere, in art also, the law gets the most attention.
beautiful pictures by the way, like your blog.

riye said...

I think the problem is that at some point in a lot of people's childhood somebody told them that they were drawing things wrong and they decided that meant they couldn't do art. I think that's kind of sad.

Happy new year yasu! Glad you got to go to Japan (I love Kyoto!).

riye

Unknown said...

oh agnes, your words... just so beautiful.
i think yu yasutake is japanese, that's what i thought to understand from her blog.
lovely to see you back- all the best at uni, and have a fabulous year..
mady x