The Importance of Art
(continued from previous page)
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.