the art of making a world

ART111

“…beauty is often where you don’t expect to find it; that it is something we may discover and also invent, then reinvent, for ourselves; that the most important things in the world are never as simple as they seem but that the world is also richer when it declines to abide by comforting formulas. And that it is always good to keep your eyes wide open, because you never know what you will discover. The drive to live life more alertly being an instinctive need, whether you are an artist by trade or by desire, the art of seeing well is a necessary skill, which fortunately can be learned.”

Picasso, Weeping Woman, 1937

Picasso, Le Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907

Picasso in his studio

Pierre Bonnard in his studio, photographed by Cartier-Bresson

Bonnard, The Breakfast Table, 1930-1

Pierre & Marthe Bonnard, 1920

Pierre Bonnard, Nude in the Bath

Pierre Bonnard, Marthe in the Bathtub

Pierre Bonnard, Marthe in the Bath (detail)

Bonnard, Marthe Entering the Room, 1942

Pierre Bonnard, Jardin Vu De La Terrasse

Bonnard, Woman in a Green Dress in a Garden

Bonnard, Last Self-Portrait, 1944

Joan Mitchell, 1925 – 1992

Mitchell, After April, Bernie, 1987

“We are all vaguely tormented with a desire to know a world which appears to us a dungeon…I should feel as if I could not depart in peace out of this narrow sphere unless I endeavored to explore my prison. The more I examine it, the more beautiful and extensive it becomes in my eyes.”

Astolphe de Custine

Kimsooja, Looking into Sewing

Henry Darger1892 – 1973

Henry Darger’s home

Henry Darger

Henry Darger

Caine’s Arcade, East LA

Caine’s Arcade, East LA

 “No work of art is more important than the Christian’s own life, and every Christian is called upon to be an artist in this sense. He may have no gift of writing, no gift of composing or singing, but each man has the gift of creativity in terms of the way he lives his life. In this sense, the Christian’s life is to be an artwork. The Christian’s life is to be a thing of beauty in the midst of a lost and despairing world.”

Theologian Francis A. Schaeffer

Read:• Chapter 1, “The Art of Making a World”

Respond on Verso:• Reflect on the reading.• Reflect on how you can (or already are)

creating a world for yourself. Do you see “art” in this? How can you make this more “artful”?

• React to at least one of your peer’s responses: ask follow-up questions; add to the comments; challenge a viewpoint; etc.