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at ACA
J. Fred Woell
at ACA
Quotes
"In the modern world, certainly since the late
eighteenth century, the arts are among the few forces
in a free society for a continuing sense of moral order.
Great artists today have eschewed organized religion
but not the personal religious experience. The work of
the artist is by the nature of conditions today
hermetic. The studio-atelier is both workshop and
retreat. A monastic solitude becomes necessary for
searching, for self-discovery. The quest for artistic
identity may ultimately reveal the world in unexpected
forms. Creation means finding, planning, constructing,
experimenting, evolving that which did not exist
before. This tenacious search for the clear idea
in the right medium at the appropriate scale is today
an issue of morality. It is a personal struggle. No
one asks for it; it must be fought for. In the
unfolding of thought and action, idea and gesture,
the artist becomes a part of the processes of the
natural world. The artist can establish clearer
insights for a new union between humans and their
environment."
— Gibson A. Danes
3 comments:
Hello Fred, This is Daris from Idaho and the Spokane Guild. I'm so happy you are doing so great. I don’t like be the first to comment, but I feel this is an important subject. I know first hand Art Saves Lives. I was broken for a while and with Art, Family and Friends, I healed. The passion for art is healing. You don't need to think or analyze just take it all in and feel, enjoy. I believe Art is every where.
You pose a very good question about how do you spread the word. When you are a working artist and you go through this experience, people think you are on some sort of soap box. I really think most things work by example. Teaching others when ever possible can work wonders, it can open doors people never thought of.
For me I like to have a discussion before I start a class. What is your inspiration, what do you want to say, how do you feel right now, why are you here, why did you choose this class? I know it can be a little heavy at first and I might be the only one talking. After the class is over, we think about these questions again, (I usually have them on a hand out) did we accomplish what we started out to do? Good luck to you and I’m looking forward to reading this blog.
Art is right action and you know, for me, art is like the repository of the souls of artists. It's the Maori tradition that artists/ancestors continue to live within the things they have made.
How art has meaning for me is because I am touched by someone's soul. And it is often very sacred, can be personal and emotional but sometimes it can be logical, clever and funny.
There are so many ways people put their hearts and their minds out there for others to see, actions, caring gestures can be visible manifestations of a soul..... but it seems that the artist is attracted to expressing their spirits in physical and sometimes universal ways.
Love begets love, joy begets joy, so also beauty can inspire beauty - relishing life, and life with all its wrinkles but that is part of its magnificence is it not, that it has this possible range and can dip to such terrible depths but can soar to such heights? It is hard to accept sometimes, problematic in the understanding that all extremes are necessary for life to be life.
I sent Pat an image of Matisse's Bathers mural in the Barnes. I don’t think I know how to attach things here. (I will attempt it though.) I have never been a huge fan of the cut outs, but I am moving toward an understanding of the vigor of the simplicity in these. I prefer this one to the Bather canvases he did earlier. Its punchy, masculine, a sort of baso profundo (sp?) It also begins to help me understand Matisse’s "Backs" at MOMA. Maybe one aspect of art that adds value to life is if we are open, we are constantly training our eyes and our minds to consider something more than what we assumed before about a piece of art and thus we remain open and inquisitive.
Art can give us those many varied samples of expression to examine and grapple with.
I was looking for you and your latest art...happy to find this forum and greatly relieved that you are recovered and back to your calling.
I learned more than just technique when you taught in SATX...you are not only a renouned artist but are one of the best teachers in my life.
You are an inspiration
Art is the healing of ourselves and will always be the heart of all nations...we are just an animal without the arts.
Kathy M
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