One interesting chapter was about teaching art, in high school or university even graduate school and becoming teachers and professors. He focuses here on art classes, but the same could be said for many teachers in all subjects.
I've always aspired to be a writer. From Junior high on I wrote poetry and dabbled in short stories in times of depression and loneliness or boredom during summer break. I found writing to be frustrating because what was in my head had a hard time being put onto paper. My hand couldn't write as fast as my thoughts.
In college I continued but found it really frustrating to type on a manual typewriter or even an electric one. I knew though that I had stories in me, and I'd be a writer.
After college and the five years before getting my methods courses and student teaching out of the way I had time to start writing. I started a science fiction story and am still trying to whip it into shape for publication. When I started teaching, I found little energy for writing. Life did get in the way. Married with two children and trying to make a living.
Then the computer and word processing freed me of the tyranny of typewriters and liquid paper. I wrote my first novel, Vander's Magic Carpet on a 386 IBM computer without a hard drive on 51/4" floppy disks, over a summer and sent it off to an awards contest. Then my writing dried up.
I began writing Optimus: Praetorian Guard and it took me ten years as I could only write on it after two weeks of decompressing from school.
Bayles & Orland their chapter The Academic World talk about how teaching art kills the teacher of being able to produce art. They never mention the C-word or creativity or the A-word adrenaline. This explains why settling for a paycheck in teaching erodes the teacher of devoting themselves to art.
Since I retired my adrenaline level is way down and I'm financially secure enough to devote hours per day to my writing and that's made all the difference. I never feared that I wasn't good enough I instinctively knew Bayles & Orland's first point. Art if for the artist. I write because the story is in me, and I have to get it out. If others like or appreciate what I've written that strokes my ego and makes me feel better, but I don't lose sleep if no one wants to read my books.
There is mention of censorship which is prevalent today with artwork being burned and books banned, but that's been the norm for all art.
One interesting fact they mentioned. Many civilizations have come and gone. Most took centuries before they developed writing, but all from day one had art. Even before there were civilizations there was cave art painting and clay sculptures. Art is always present.
I want to end with their summation:
VOX HUMANA
To make art is to sing with the human voice. To do this you must first learn the only voice you need is the voice you already have. Artwork is ordinary work, but it takes courage to embrace that work, and wisdom to mediate the interplay of art & fear. Sometimes to see that the universe is not formless and dark throughout but awaits simple the revealing light of your own mind. Your art does not arrive miraculously from the darkness but is made uneventfully in the light.
3 comments:
Sounds like a very interesting book, but geez, they want $10 for a kindle book?
Glad your mother got to have her dream come true. You take great pictures on your blog, Yogi.
I agree, Berthold. I got the book at church where there's a bookshelf of books members have placed there for others to read. At only 122 pages that much money for an e-book is silly. That's what happens when publishing houses set the price and not the author.
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