In today’s world, state run "art schools" (colleges), the media, and galleries among other institutions have led most Americans to understand art as ridiculous, irrelevant, even obscene. That, or obligatory but otherwise meaningless decoration. Artists, when actors portray them in the popular media, are characters that are mental, egomaniacal, deluded, lecherous, etc. The list goes on as long as it is demeaning. While the artists that I know are hard working, very normal people with families and usually working a day job to make ends meet, this is not the stereotype fed to the world.
So... do we artists really want so little depth in our work that the world only sees mental/social aberrance, shock value, and foolishness as the primary purpose of our efforts? How many times have you heard someone say "My kindergartner could do that." while looking at modern art? Or, maybe you've seen and heard about some of the absolute obscenities that are being produced by "artists" who received their training through the public universities.
There are people across America and around the world, right now, practicing real skills and honing them to the apex of human ability. (I don't just refer to the comic book and science fiction illustrators ;-} ...even though I'm smiling, I have to say that some of these people have acheived remarkable results). I'm referencing men and women who identify themselves as part of the new atelier movement (French for workshop, atelier is pronounced like ah-tell-e-a). Many of these students skip college to instead attend one of these working studio-schools to learn the academic disciplines, traditional skills and the best techniques as practiced by their artist/teacher(s), much the way apprentices of the past learned their art.
There are people across America and around the world, right now, practicing real skills and honing them to the apex of human ability. (I don't just refer to the comic book and science fiction illustrators ;-} ...even though I'm smiling, I have to say that some of these people have acheived remarkable results). I'm referencing men and women who identify themselves as part of the new atelier movement (French for workshop, atelier is pronounced like ah-tell-e-a). Many of these students skip college to instead attend one of these working studio-schools to learn the academic disciplines, traditional skills and the best techniques as practiced by their artist/teacher(s), much the way apprentices of the past learned their art.
If you appreciate a more natural or realistic presentation of subject matter, you might find it enjoyable and well worth your time and attention to investigate their efforts. A good start might be with two very good books I have read called; Classical Painting Atelier, and Classical Drawing Atelier, both by Juliette Aristides. Or you might try a wonderful and extensive website , the Art Renewal Center (an organization devoted to restoring traditional values in art as inherited, in the Western tradition, from early renaissance masters through to the greatest artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as the highest skills represented in the mid-Eastern and far Eastern traditions).
Check it out and let me know what you think.
