Linden Tree Art Classes

The Importance of Art

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Drawing forms the basis of most art
Drawing is the basis of most art
                                                                      
The Importance of Art
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Certainly some of it was, just as nowadays art is used for advertising, magazine illustration, package design, and many other purposes. But it is not those enterprises that make art happen. Rather, the people doing those activities employ the services of artists to further their own goals.

One has only to work with children a bit to see that art is a natural activity and for the most part is done for its own reasons. Children turn out drawings and paintings and sculptures of things around them and things that "just look cool" with nary a thought about hunting or religion or anything other that doing what they are doing. Of course, they may also make things for a purpose, such as a present for mom or to accompany a school assignment.

Many people who are famous for accomplishments outside of art also studied art or practiced it. They include:

  • Leonardo Da Vinci (although very well known as an artist, he was a prodigious inventor, anatomist)
  • Samuel F. B. Morse (inventor of Morse Code and the telegraph, was  successful painter)
  • Buckminister Fuller (inventor of the geodesic dome, Dynamixon and much else, was also an artist)
  • John Updike (novelist, was graduate of Leeds School of Art)
  • Joyce Carey (author of The Gift Horse)
  • David Lynch (famous movie and TV director is alum of Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, as is your teacher at TLT)
  • Bruce Beasley (inventor of acrylic resin casting method used by US Navy in building Gemini)
  • Victor Hugo (author of Le Miserables was accomplished landscape artist
  • David Byrne (founder of the Talking Heads is graduate of Rhode Island School of design)
  • Friedensreich Hundertwasser (known primarily as an artist nowadays, was also architect, as were Le Corbusier, Michael Graves and many others)
  • Rube Goldberg (engineer, cartoonist, inventor)
  • Alexander Calder (inventor of mobiles and stabiles, engineer)
  • Leonard Nimoy (photographer and Mr Spock)
  • Martin Mull (Hollywood Squares, etc. is a graduate of RSDI who considers himself a painter first, acting being his day job)
  • Robert Fulton (father of the steamboat, was professional painter)
  • and hundreds more.



6 images of making things
Making things
classroom activities
Classroom Fun
gallery/thumbnails/dscn1354.jpg
Sculpture with Wood and other things
gallery/thumbnails/dscn1354.jpg
Sculpture with Clay

some painting students and their work
Painting and Color

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updated August 16, 2010