First I want say what happened to me this week. I stopped drawing for the course for a time because I cannot put my finger on what is wrong with my drawing. But, as I am not a person who can easy become depressed, I moved to studying books about famous artists, their techniques, aesthetics, Chinese philosophy and poetry and, of course, art magazines.
The life left unexamined is a life not worth living, to paraphrase Aristotle.
I found my answer and from tomorrow morning, I will start doing my course again. I will go to shop and begging or just quietly sit next to the fruits and draw and draw them, because I can not afford to buy them at the moment. I can even take a commission from the shopkeeper for drawing him, just to draw fruits NOW.
My mistake was when I moved to studying techniques that are obviously very important. I did not always study objects properly – close eyes and visualize the object in my memory and then draw it then study it again and again and again. It is intellectual work and it trains put a form in space correctly; also, it teaches you to still see objects of beauty and not loose th ability to enjoy and share the beauty that I see in objects with the techniques that I have already picked up and try to put it all in drawing. I moved to copy-cat for a while and it is that that was bothering me. I stoped to SEE.
Secondly, I see my tutor is pushing me to finish course as soon as possible. Of course I can send all assignments now, I have a few ideas for all the assignments already – really, I got them as soon as I read my course, need just to draw them – but I made my plans and there is no point showing off and putting in my blog the best drawings that I produce and rush through the course. I put into the blog what shows where and how I make mistakes. I see them and I guess it will make me better.
I spent time to look at other students’ blogs and gather all of the information about my tutor from the internet. I found a few very talented students with very interesting art-work. If they progress to another level, I would like make contact with them and learn from them, because if their tutor has spotted them, these people can develop into something remarkable.
But it is not my job to judge; I am here to learn. But I see the potential to develop a school or art group of people in this university. Buckingham has a high standard for the arts and, assuming OCA is a part of it, I did not make a mistake applying to this university, even though it is the only private university in England and it is the only university that does distance learning courses in fine art.
I have very strong views, and art magazines prove it, about tendencies to change fasions in art. A few years back, exactly 5 years ago, I noticed that some English collectors started buying paintings from foreign artists from a new generetion of them who are able produce ART. But the English estableshment continues to push the absurdist and similar movements in art as the one and only, although the english public are getting bored with it. When a style has become too tired and boring, the artist need only say, when they produce the same old thing, that it is postmodern so, although appearing identical to the old stuff, is just referring to it in a “humerus” way. They cannot, or do not need to, defend their positions convincingly – being able to memorize a list of buzzwords is not the same as constructing an argument (of course, the final thing to say is “you cannot understand it”, like a child in the playground). It looks as though even the Tate Modern have lost their wits: invited another Chinese artist from these movements. They are stuck with “avant guard” (although, normally this normally means new, now just seem to mean a regurgitation. Of course, the “shocking” art of today cannot hold a candle to de Sade in shockingness, intellect or artistic vision and he has been dead for 200 years – where’s the new?) art of yesterday while europe and the east move to new lines in art; even illustrator-artist develope new techniques and use new fresh ideas, but art in England at this moment is run by people of the same sort as Simon Cowel who know nothing about music but continue to run show business and crush any individual talent – safety and money before art. I cannot say that such people cannot make money, obviously they do, but even X factor has become deeply unpopular and people vote for Wagner, not because they like him but they vote against the middle aged men in suit who are the establishment.
The same tendency can be found in art. New fresh ideas are coming and, I believe, soon we can see a new movement in England.
Need remember that fashion rules, a fashion goes for a while and then another line comes and so artists need to work hard, develop as intellectuals and not loose the ability to enjoy and share your vision with other people. Art, after all, not only for artists, it is for all the people .
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