Artists of the world--unite!

Particularly for the visual arts students: Share your philosophies, themes, interests, everything about the brilliant art that you make. Do you make sculpture? Draw in ink? Spend globs of money on oil paint? Paint for the beauty of that glint of yellow you can see in a red apple? What inspires you? In all, what defines you as a growing artist?

*Edit: I didn't intend to treat the word "art" so narrowly! Actors, dancers, musicians, and other artists are also invited to share their inspirations!

I've been meaning to reply to this for a while but I've not had the time. Guess now is as good as ever!
I'm a dancer-but I consider myself to be both an athlete and and artist..
So what inspires me? Hrm. the answer would be(and probably not that suprisingly) everything. Life inspires me.
I love how everything in the world dances-even if they dont relieze it. Our hearts beat in sync, the wind blows through the trees, we cry and grieve. Everyone has mannerisms. Little kids dance-before they can walk. People in love, new parents. There is a pulse there-if you take the time to stop and watch it.
Dance is human emotion in its rawest form. There are things far too precious and dear to try and explain in words. Its a personal escape for me-probably the only reason I'm still sane. When my life gets hard-I can dance out that pain and frustration and almost in a way convert my pain to physical sweat-and get rid of it. Its probably the greatest form of release and therapy..
Music is definatly another inspiration. I can listen to any type of music and mentally visualialize what the dance looks like.
You should always be able to hear the dance and see the music. They become inseperable.
Im inspired by the international culture of dance. How is visible in almost any culture..
Im inspired by the personal challenge. The only person that can make me improve is myself. A plie is always goign to be a plie but I can control my movement and play around with different artistic quirks.
I believe. and this is not to offend any others out there(feel free to debate)...that dance is the purest of all of the art forms. This is, to quote Ted Shawn, because dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff that it is made of. Every other art form I can think of-relies on something else. Musician-intrument, painter-paintbrush, actor-lines.
Dance is one hundred and fifty percent the person doing it-you have to have such a high level of drive in order to complete the amount of work needed-and you also have to have passion-not really a passion for dance...but a passion for life and a lot of awe at the world. There is a difference between preforming steps and dancing. Anyone can learn steps.
Best way to explain my philosophies would be through quotes of people far more intellegent and talented than I am. So bare with me here.

I'm in for theatre. What inspires me? The chance to learn. I learn something from every character I play. From Dorothy Gale to Fania Felelon ( a woman in a concerntration camp) you learn something about yourself, life, and the world around you. With each part I play comes knew knowledge, and to me, knowledge is the greatest thing to hold. I'm not talking facts, but instead the knowledge of new emotions that you've never felt as strongly as you did in the midst of that specific monologue, or the truth you get when you realize the underline reasoning in a characters actions. You learn something about the human race whether it be beautiful or horrifyingly disturbing, you gain an understanding that you would not have had otherwise. You see, us artists have a very arcane view of the world which makes us very lucky.

Yes, I do disagree with you. Because I can argue the same thing about my art form. There is a difference between memorizing lines and acting. ANYONE can memorize lines. In order to act you have to dedicate yourself to the learning of human nature. You have to constantly study how people behave, react, and feel in every situation that you can possibly imagine. And therefor words are not the only thing that makes an actor but also body language. Not to say that the words are not important because from what I can see you yourself use them quite well and quite openly. You use them to defend your point. With out words we are cave men, primitive and impulsive creatures. And painting..well.. that's been around as long as dancing has. You see iit in caves thousands and thousands of years old. It's as important and pure as acting. What it comes down too: We each get something important from our art..

That was beautiful Caty...

"In order to act you have to dedicate yourself to the learning of human nature."

When I actively acted at school, before I got to annoyed with my drama teacher, I felt exactly that way. Acting, painting, sculpture, poetry. art is just so wonderful...

Thank you.
I have a feeling this is going to be an unforgettable summer.

hey...disagreeing is good
im pretty excited about this summer too. i have a feeling everyone is gonna learn alot from each other.
and have a pretty rockinn time

We're not even there yet and everyone is already getting sentimental...lol

haha. We're artists what do you expect. Well I don't have anything nearly as deep as Kat or Cady but as far as what inspires me. Great theatre for me is something that pushes some kind of envelope. Theatre with a point, that wants to make a change whether in society as a whole or just someone's view on something. I think anything that touches you and inspires you is considered "art." Whether that be that feeling you get when you do that dance move you've been working on for so long or just the chill bumps up and down your arm when a broadway performer hits that certain note in just the right way. I think there is a big difference between "entertainment" and "art" they are often two in one, but not always. Kind of like Kat was saying about babies dancing before they could would, the some concept could be applied to theatre. Little children play make believe, which is really just acting without a script.

When I try to do my ninja walk, I sound like an elephant. When I public speak, I usually talk too fast or pause frequently. When I write, my personal emotions spew out in a jumble of slang, profanity, and informal grammar. Clearly I am not a dancer, actor, or author.

I am a painter. I am an artist; I am a color-er. My art, now more than ever, is a way for me to say things that cannot be expressed any other way. It is a way for me to say something that has power and message that I, personally, cannot accomplish any other way. With art, I retreat into myself, forget about the superfluous aspects of materialistic life (like grades and social dynamics), and contemplate the spirit.

Art is my child, my baby. I think that this is the love of a mother who knows that she has created an existence that would have been impossible without her. The beauty of individual thought in its purest form: creation as a product of the human mind. Currently, my art deals with the objectification of the individual within society and the loss of independent thought.

To counter this theme, sometimes I think that mature artists are the pinnacle of self-realization. This art is my voice, my way of asserting that I don't want to resign myself casually to such a fate.

wow....I feel so undeep on this board!!!

Well, I feel kind of flamboyant with my fancy words. As my English teacher would say, I am using "pretentious diction." Without it, I feel kind of stupid defending my art. It's nice to have art speak for itself, but it proves kind of difficult when no one can see it....

That's a very valid point. I'm better at writing essays than just off the top of my head stuff. I use "pretentious language" too. In my writing more than speaking. My AP history teacher says she can tell my essays even when our names aren't on them b/c I have "drama queen" language.

One thing that has always amazed me about art (and art history) is the way it can connect humanity over thousands of years. For example:

Every year our art department takes a trip to Washington DC and the National Gallery. This year, our only assignment was to find two sculptures with a 100 year age difference that had a common theme. It could have been movement, form, subject, inspiration, etc.

My point is, you can pick your favorite artist or painting, determine what makes it special to you, and then pick a theme based on it. My favorite painting ever is THE RAFT OF THE MEDUSA. I could take the theme of death and compare it to THE THIRD OF MAY. Or, I could look at the use of controversial art and compare Gericault's shocking painting to the pop art revolution. I could even look at how the compositional structure of the painting affected its impact on history.

If you are interested in connecting common themes (the prostrate figure, sleep, God, etc) I would recommend using the Tate online gallery as a jumping off point; it categorizes art based on different categories very nicely. Just view a work, and use the "subjects" tab at the top of the page.

Hahahah, yes, I'm big on connecting humanity over the years (hence why I'm doing Humanities). My school takes similar trips but to Hampton University's collection of African art since it's closer to my school. .
Oh, I've never considered connecting those two pieces, but I see how they would be an interesting comparison especially considering that they both have historical aspects/inspiration and so much raw emotion. I like that. I think I'll look into similar concepts to that.
I will definitely check out the Tate online gallery for some ideas. Thank you so much for the help! .

Hey! My name is Courtney and I'll be an RA on the second floor of York West, and I graduated from CNU (holla!) with my major in Studio Art and my minor in Art History. I love working with crafts and clay. I suggest we get together on a Sunday afternoon and make some community art project! Any questions about CNU's art program, art stuff, or whatever, email me at courtney.forget@yahoo.com

Well as much as i love dance, it is definitely not my only art form in which i express myself. And as you can tell english is not one of them, i hate that on this board it doesnt automatically capitalize "I" 's and put the " ' " after doesn " ' " t haha random. Anyway,

Dance, although not my original art form has become apart of my life. My favorite styles of dance are contemporary, and ballet (convenient for Gov Skool). I love incorporating "acting" or "theatrical believability" into my dancing. Dance, for me should tell a story and teach someone somthing. I am not looking to amaze anyone with how high i can jump or how flexible that jump is (while i love the compliments haha i mean who doesnt?) I am looking to like i said "teach" someone something.

Singing, something I have been doing since the womb. My favorite things to sing is musical theatre haha. Anyway, I love (just like in dance) to have someone learn a lesson from me singing. Inspirational, i would say is the stuff i like to sing, along with those crazy notes i try and belt out. A song i recently sang entitled "Lost in the Wilderness" from Steven Schwartz's Children of Eden. Though I am not very religious, I fell in love with this song. It is a song that can be taken in many different ways. Its one of those songs you have to hear to understand i guess.

Theatre, probably the one that means the most to me, not because its my favorite but because of the relationships i have built from it. The family I have made at my highschool means so much to me. As for the performance part of it, "character" characters are very fun to play they are usually very comedic and amusing, My most recent comedic role was Cinderella's Prince from Steven Sondheim's Into the Woods. He is a rediculousy pompous character that believes that everyone is in love with him, he was very fun to play. While comedic characters are fun I find the more dramatic characters to be more interesting. Cain was my most recent character, now if you no the bible, the Cain i played was a little less gruesome and hardcore in physicalities but not emotion. He was my first role in which i had to cry on stage. My director actually stopped rehearsal at one point and asked if i was ok and while i was crying i said "IM IN CHARACTER!" haha.

I believe that the experiences you have in life is the fuel to discover these emotions that an actor must portray to be believable. The theatre I believe is the central place in my life because without it where would I play that character, sing that song, and dance that dance?

hope this all makes sense

Taylor.....that was beautiful

i just looked at this thread for the first time, and in taylor's post he mentioned song... which leads me to have to also disagree with kat's much earlier post where she said musicians must rely on instruments. vocalists have their instruments built in, and i think that song is also one of the most pure expressions of art a human is capable of.

mk I can edit my prior statement to include vocalists and actors to a certain extent
only objection would be that singing and acting is limited by words while dance can include anything
It definatly was not meant as an insult to anyone else out there or meant to belittle anybody because all artistic expression is beautiful and no artist is better or more worthy of the title artist than the other

well i feel a little torn...in three directions haha
I think pure is what you make it and its about what the person is feeling. Unfortunately not everyone can paint, sing, dance, whistle, act, play an instrument(outside of the body). but the point is, art is what you put into it and what you get out of it is the purity. No art form surpasses the other. Art is like food, just because you dont like the taste of one doesnt mean it isnt food. (bad analogy but you get the point i think) Better yet (to go back to my purity statement) art is like a Brita filter(think about it) That my friends is why we are all going to govskool in 2 weeks!

is a Brita filter what is on my fridge?
sorry haha. I just didn't know what it was.

13 days actually =D

yes ms smarty pants