What do you notice as you walk down a street? Do you notice the deep hued greens of the ginkgo leaves? How the clouds are shaped like dollops of ice cream? The way cracks in the sidewalk resemble capillary veins? These are three basic elements of art — color, shape and line — that everyone should be sensitized to seeing.
To make visual art is to have a heightened awareness of the visual world. If you spend six hours drawing one gingko tree leaf — even if it’s terrible — you walk away with an acquired appreciation for light, texture, shape and color. Upon close inspection, the most mundane things become magnificent.
Studies in art education often attempt to connect art studies with test scores or math proficiency. Rarely do advocates of artistic learning invoke the value of art for art’s sake. Their attempts to justify art education within confines of a literacy and numeracy based curriculum are misguided. Visual art is an intellectual realm of its own that generates understanding of the world in a completely different way and should be valued for its own intrinsic qualities.
Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland of Project Zero, an arts-education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, argue along these lines. While their research found little correlation between art education and test scores, it found that art students benefited in other ways. They told the New York Times that “students who study the arts seriously are taught to see better, to envision, to persist, to be playful and learn from mistakes, to make critical judgments and justify such judgments.” Visual arts allow for avenues of expression that transcend verbal acuity and allow knowledge to be exhibited in a new way. This presents compelling evidence that art education should not be viewed simply as a supplement to mastery of other disciplines, but instead as an independent branch of knowledge practiced for its own sake.
Not only does fine art expand your mind in ways no other discipline can, but working on an art project also creates an internal peace. I find that after a day of staring at computer screens and typing, it’s almost trance-like to sit and smear color all over paper. Even if it looks dreadful, the movement and unique concentration required are both calming and invigorating. To bring an idea into physical existence with your hands is an almost mystical experience that is an incredible outlet for stress. The times drawing has saved me from being overwhelmed are countless. There’s a reason art therapy is used for victims of trauma, and it can be just as healing for frazzled college students.
Drawing makes you a better discerner. The process of creating a basic life drawing involves contemplating a subject in both holistic and reductionist terms. You keep the essence of the gingko leaf in mind, while scrutinizing the veins, ruffled edges and the blues, greens and yellows of its pigment. The smallest details become essential to the overall composition. Drawing from life creates an unparalleled visual understanding of the subject. Your eye begins to recognize patterns in everything, and you become more attune to the world around you.
Through this artistic practice, the loveliness of daily life becomes more apparent. My mother is one of the finest artists I know. To accompany her on walks is to have your eyes opened to the incredible pleasure of simply existing on a planet as fine as ours. How can birch trees be that exquisite? How glorious that crow feathers reflect such a spectrum of color. How fine the shadows cast by that fence are. Developing the artistic part of your mind can make your world a piece of art. You’ll never be without beauty.
People love to say they’re terrible artists. Everyone loves to brag about their stick figures. It is the automatic response to seeing the work of an accomplished artist. The secret is that technical expertise isn’t required to get enjoyment or valuable experiences from art. Accuracy and creative ingenuity take time like all other skills. But the journey of advancing artistic dexterity gives you way more than the ability to draw well. You learn to really see your environment in all its glory.
No one should be intimidated by art classes, and no one should dismiss them as frivolous. Take art to develop another facet of your intelligence. Take it to soothe your frayed nerves. Take it to enrich your soul.
Robyn Sundlee ’16 draws a mean stick figure. If you’d like to gush about art with her, she can be reached at robyn_sundlee@brown.edu.
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