Elks, Moose & Eagles, Oh My!

Social Media tips for the Southcoast, MA – FRATERNAL. SOCIAL. BENEFICENT. PATERNAL. PROTECTIVE. - I bumped into a friend and we were discussing social media and it lead to social networking.  I mentioned that I had read The End Of The Social Network Era, The Rise Of The Social Circle Era by Jason Schwartz, Matchbook on the Business Insider site. My last post was based on Mr. Schwartz's article - Why You Should Circle the Wagons & Stay on the Porch...  

If you didn't read that post, Mr. Schwartz says, “Social Networks are characterized by, "Friend Everyone, Share Everything."  Social Circles will be characterized by "Group Dynamically, Share Selectively." Social Circles will focus on groups, automatically created based on a person’s real life social circles.”

While relating this to my friend, it hit me.  Social Circles?  That extends into associations.  Gee, the word association says it all - a group of people who have an interest, activity or purpose in common; a society. Will we see the resurrection of the clubs our dads and granddads belonged to?  Will the ranks of the Elks, Moose and Eagles grow?  

Will Freemasonry have a resurgence?  How about ethnic and religious associations such as the B'nai Brith, the Knights of Columbus and the Ancient Order of Hibernians?  Makes me think of the granddad's club in the movie Peggy Sue Got Married.

Hey, how about book clubs?  Abraham Lincoln said, "Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all."  When I first saw Peggy Sue Got Married, I promised myself  that if I ever joined an organization, it would be because they had cool hats like Peggy's granddad or Fred Flintstones' Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes Lodge Number 26. I couldn't leave the last post hanging without mentioning this.  I hope you found it helpful!

   

Why You Should Circle the Wagons & Stay on the Porch...

Social Media tips for the Southcoast, MA – DECENTRALIZE.  GET AWAY BY STAYING PUT.  RATCHET DOWN.  KNUCKLE DOWN.  DOUBLE DOWN.  KEEP YOUR MONEY IN-TOWN. – I just read The End Of The Social Network Era, The Rise Of The Social Circle Era by Jason Schwartz, Matchbook on the Business Insider site.  It seems that the concept that I’ve kicked around on this blog about solving many of our education and employment problems by resurrecting the concept and function of neighborhoods and villages is spilling over into cyberspace.  What Mr. Schwartz says is, “Social Networks are characterized by, "Friend Everyone, Share Everything."  Social Circles will be characterized by "Group Dynamically, Share Selectively." Social Circles will focus on groups, automatically created based on a person’s real life social circles.”

“They will dynamically shift to include new close friends and remove those that become distant. “Friends” will come to mean the same thing as it does in the real world, a group of people whom you share a close connection with. Content will be shared selectively with those that it’s most relevant to, mirroring the intimate sharing of real-life friendships.” In marketing; birds of a feather flock together.   

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – not Marshall McLuhan said that, “less is more.” McLuhan however, did say, “The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves -result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.” When a new technology is born, consumers tend to apply it in ways not imagined by the creator of the technology.  For example, when Gutenberg printed the first Bible, you’d think it would create a demand for books of all kinds.  It did but the demand for anti-papist pamphlets outpaced book orders.  Another example is photography.  Within a year of its debut in France, the porn industry was at full tilt.  Eventually everything finds its own niche.

Social networking driven by My Space and Facebook was originally adopted by users under the age of twenty-five.  That demographic wasn’t socially mature or experienced enough to value or understand the concepts of privacy and permanency and shared (an old word with new meaning) everything and anything with anyone and with everyone.  This exemplified Andy Warhol and his prediction that everyone would have their 15-minutes of fame.  Facebook has now evolved and is being used as part of standard operating procedure for businesses and now education as well.  Its core uses are now, however, are women between the ages of 35 and 65.  Twitter too has been embraced by business and education.

McLuhan also said, “As the unity of the modern world becomes increasingly a technological rather than a social affair, the techniques of the arts provide the most valuable means of insight into the real direction of our own collective purposes.”  He’s one for two.  Technology has woven itself into the social fabric as social networking.  But the arts, for the exception of the movies, have been affected by other shifts in society; but more about this another time.

In my own simple words, “what goes up must come down and what was once important now seems silly in retrospect.”  Technology is fantastic.  It’s not new.  Technology isn’t a thing; it’s the activity of inventing and producing the materials, methods and machines that make our lives better.  The telegraph was, in its day, cutting edge.  Technology, although it offers us the benefits of faster, cheaper and better; is not what makes life worth living.  Having everything that the World has to offer available to you on the Internet 24/7 is great.  Not knowing who your neighbor isn’t.  Not knowing anything about your town isn’t.  Not really knowing most of the Friends in your social network is, well, stupid. 

When I say knowing, I mean really knowing.  Would you invite all of these friends to your home or go out to dinner with them with some frequency at their particular level of knowing?  Have our egos become so fragile that our need for affection and belonging can only be measured by the amount of “friends” we’ve collected and the number and frequency of their adjudged likes in regards to even our most mundane activities?  Sure, social networking has closed the gap on distance and frequency of communication with family and real friends in a way that the telephone, email and the mail could not.  But...

Before I move on to Social Circles, let me remind you that social networking isn’t new at all.  The technology that currently defines it is however.  Social networking was wherever neighbors gathered or associated while performing the mundane tasks of laundry, fetching water or getting a coffee at the local coffee shop.  Hanging out your laundry was social networking – it was also very public.  Your laundry spoke volumes about you. Frilly nickers or holes in your nickers?  Bright white-whites or dull grey-whites?  The whole family was represented by age, gender and occupation.  So, yes, Social Circles are naturally characterized by the group’s dynamics including what they share or have in common, which defines their selective-ness, or perhaps more correctly commonality and communality.

Mr. van der Rohe was correct, “less is more.”  Or, as the classic Volkswagen advertising campaign of the Sixties exclaimed: Think Small.  Actually, this is all about social sustainability.  As the New Urbanism website calls proposes; cities that offer more:

• Walkability
• Connectivity
• Mixed-Use & Diversity
• Mixed Housing
• Quality Architecture & Urban Design
• Traditional Neighborhood Structure
• Increased Density
• Smart Transportation
• Sustainability
• Quality of Life

You’re nobody until somebody loves you.  The requirements for happiness have always been control, affection and belonging.  Social networking gives us those requirements in a something is better than nothing sort of way.  Ain’t nothing like the real thing baby - Buddha said, “He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes.”  Can that thought be correlated to: He who has 50 Friends expects at least 50 Likes; he who has no Friends has no Likes.”  Finally, McLuhan said that art, but I believe technology fits here and, “…at its most significant is a distant early warning system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen.”  Perhaps Social Networking, umm, Social Circles, are a portent of things to come.  It’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood!    

Ca-Ching! Fa-Chang was on the Money!

Thinking About Art and stuff in the Southcoast, MA – SIMPLICITY.  MATHEMATICAL RELATIONSHIPS.  CONTRAST.  REPETITION. ALIGNMENT.  PROXIMITY.  IT’S ALL HERE!  “You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection,” so said the Buddha.

On that bit of wisdom, may I offer this, “You can search throughout the entire universe for perfection.  The first step to realizing perfection is to admit you are less than perfect.  It is in seeking perfection that we frustrate ourselves.  Perfection, we must remind ourselves is not the destination but the journey itself.“  Sometimes, however, we are allowed a glimpse of perfection.  It is made all the more glorious when we know we had a hand in it. The challenge then is to realize that we cannot duplicate that fleeting moment of perfection but must instead remain vigilant in its pursuit once more and forever. 

When I was in college, one of my painting instructors lectured us on this painting - Six Persimmons, a Chinese 13th century painting by the Buddhist monk, Mu Qi (Moo-Chee).  He was also known by his given name Fa-Chang. He lived and worked during the Song dynasty.  He engaged in the spontaneous mode of Chinese painting. The painting of the Six Persimmons was famous in his own lifetime. It was both admired and revered for the high level of  brushstroke skills.

Yet, this is still a simple painting by a simple monk.  For many reasons, it may be considered the most perfect painting ever executed.  It may also be considered more even more amazing because Mu Qi was not an artist, just a monk.  But then, in my opinion, may I submit that the first artists were the first priests. Regardless, in my estimation, it is the Rosetta Stone of Art.  Why?  What does that mean?  The Rosetta Stone unlocked the secrets of ancient Egypt’s hieroglyphics. The Six Persimmons unlocks the secret; the simple essence of Art.  Why?  How?  Mu Qi employed an almost perfect balance of the concept or principle of contrast.  His thick and thin brushstrokes, the rendering of the persimmons from light to dark and from subtle nuances to bold brushstrokes are all contrasts, or contradictions or more precisely; paradoxes. 

The concept or principle he explored of repetition is obvious.  Six persimmons.  A repeated shape. Simple. But, what may not be as obvious is his concept of repetition is what the repetition has been employed for – visual rhythm.  It captures the eye.  It creates a playground for the intellect and combined with the other concepts, it is almost musical.

Fa-Chang the man and Mu Qi the Buddhist monk cashed-in, if I may be allowed to use that term, on a single work that that continues to engage and enchant the viewer in almost the same exact way as it did the day it was painted. It represents Art itself.  The concept or principle of alignment is verified by the almost musical placement of the fruit.

To continue, the concept or principle of proximity is obvious.  The six persimmons become three groups, then two and that’s where the incredible visual vitality kicks in and keeps on going.  The visual plane keeps shifting, teasing and evolving.  However, to the untrained and uninitiated, all of this makes no sense at all.  What is all of this gushing for?  What does it all really mean? 

Before I forget, please let me identify the author of  C.R.A.P. (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment & Proximity).  Robin Williams, coined the C.R.A.P. acronym.  I was introduced it to me in her book - The Non-Designer's Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice.   She stumbled on the concept in a classic moment of epiphany; better known these days as an aha moment.  The moment came about as the result of her sudden consciousness about the ubiquitous Joshua Trees growing in her neighborhood.  The lesson learned was: Once you identify or name something, you become conscious of it.  Once you are conscience of something, you have power over it. You own it; you control it.

C.R.A.P. is Robin’s basis or her Four Principles of Design.  Now that you know this, you can apply it to the Six Persimmons.  His use of contrast, for example.  [I've identified the other principles/concepts in the preceding paragraphs] The list of contrasts available to an artist are endless and pretty much define the Zen mind. Contrasts are opposites and paradoxes.  Up and down.  Left and right.  Large and small.  Bright and dull.  Light and dark.  The list is infinite.  

Yes, I know and can imagine the thoughts of those not trained in the Fine Arts or who at the very least have not been introduced to the principles of Art – crap it is!  All you see are six blobs of something that looks like apples.  Are you ignorant?  No.  Are you uncouth?  No.  Look, Art, in lots of ways is no different than wine.  Both are simple concepts and both can be enjoyed simply.  But, to truly enjoy both, you need to be alive.  By that I mean conscious.  To be fully conscious, your senses need to be on high alert.  It’s amazing how many folks don’t really taste their food or drink; who look but don’t see; who hear but never really listen and who touch but don’t feel. 

Why is this true?  A lack of education.  There is too much to cover on this subject in one post.  This singular piece of art, in my opinion, is a visual representation of a DNA sequence.  The information is coded and only obvious to those versed in the code.  Fa-Chang the man and Mu Qi the Buddhist monk was trained in enlightenment, the code, if you will.  His simple work  goes beyond the physical to the metaphysical. From the secular to the spiritual.   

We all have the capacity for love but what is it really?  It’s no different for Art.  As the song from Beauty and the Beast goes, “Certain as the sun, Rising in the East, Tale as old as time...”  The concept for the Disney hit came to us from France but the concept originated with Greek novelist and rhetorician, Apuleius’ Cupid and Psyche.  It is a tale as old as time.  Once you are conscience of something, you have power over it. The Buddha said, “Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.”  That’s my point!

Cottage Industry & Shopkeeping – This Story Shall Be Taught!

Surviving in Southcoast, MA – FREEDOM.  SECURITY.  PICK ONE.  YOU CAN’T HAVE BOTH!  OR, CAN YOU?  Imagine you’re astride your heavily armored battlesteed.  It’s Friday, October 25, 1415 - Saint Crispin’s Day.  You are preparing your mind for battle.  The place is Agincourt, France and this battle will become one of the most famous in history.  You are a part of the French Cavalry, one of the finest in Europe.  As a heavily armored knight, you and your band of brothers are feared.

The French Cavalry were the Panzerkamfwagens of their day.  The Panzerkamfwagen, also known as, a Tiger tank was feared in its day - World War II.  They were perhaps the mightiest land war machine ever created.  The German Wehrmacht’s mighty war machine featured the incredible firepower of an 88 mm gun.  The Panzerkamfwagen was heavy, powerful and lethal.

Could anyone on that Saint Crispin’s Day in 1415 have imagined that victory would be decided by a product of a country’s cottage industry?  The French soon found out when the sky, the air; the entire space above them was filled with British-made arrows.  It was raining down terror and death.  The arrows, made by children and old men and women of all classes pierced the heavy armor.  There was no defense.  The British archers that launched this agony were so feared for their skill that, when captured, the first two fingers of their bowstring hand were cut off. 

At that time, England’s main cottage industry was making arrows.  Nearly everyone made them.  British soldiers fought the battle but the British people won the war.  The arrows were launched by what was then the English longbow, or Welsh longbow.  It was the Medieval version of a Tomahawk missile.  But no weapon is effective without ammunition or a soldier to use it.  The British archers and their bows and arrows did more than win a battle; they changed how war was waged.  The moral of this story is that many smaller businesses are better than a few large ones.  Depending on large businesses for our economic survival is like putting all of our proverbial eggs in one basket. 

We’ve seen enough proof of that here in the Southcoast.  The empty hulks of our textile factories and industrial might were either burned down, torn down or have been turned into housing. With this economic downturn, more and more skilled, experienced and now displaced workers are going into business for themselves.  Working for oneself offers lots of freedom and little security.  However, our individual notion of, or need for, control is sometimes stronger than the need for security.   

Everything changes.  Technology thins out the workforce.  An economy with lowered demand slows down production.  Consumer habits change.  Things are in and out of fashion.  The cost of doing business is always on the rise.  Most of what affects our jobs or our professions or our working lives is external and not within our control.

Entrepreneurism offers some sense of control to the small business owner; whether shopkeeper or cottage enterprise.  Many of those cottage enterprises evolve into shops, small factories and some grow even larger.  Our elected officials need to start paying attention, real attention, to this economic sector; not just pay lip service.  What the Battle of Agincourt proves is that everyone needs to be involved in the economy – everybody! 

The economy starts at street-level.  Demand is generated by consumers.  Consumers live in houses.  Houses create neighborhoods.  Neighborhoods develop into villages.  Villages grow into or define the character of cities.  Shopkeepers supply the villagers with what they need.  Villages are more sustainable. 

If nearly everything you need is available on a more human scale to you in your neighborhood or village, you have to travel less.  If you travel less; you consume less fuel.  If you consume less fuel; you reduce your carbon footprint.  If you reduce your carbon footprint; the environment is healthier.  If the environment is healthier; the planet’s inhabitants are healthier.  If the planet’s inhabitants are healthier; the cost of health and social services is reduced putting less strain on state and federal services.  If we reduce the cost of health and social services; the economy is healthier.      

None of this sustainability required mobilizing armies or doing business on a grand scale.  None of this required government funding.  None of this needed to be legislated.  None of this needed anything but for “we few, we happy few,”* we shopkeepers and cottage entrepreneurs.  “From this day to the ending of the world... we in it shall be remembered”*

   

*William Shakespeare, King Henry V

Prevent Business Presentation Coma - Some Helpful Tips

Marketing tips for the Southcoast, MA – POWERPOINT WAS A WONDERFUL PROGRAM BUT IT IS A HORSE AND BUGGY ON THE AUTOBAHN OF COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY - Maybe it’s just me.  Maybe it’s not!  The more I teach, the more I try to evolve.  And, the more concerned I've become about my business students.  Okay, so they don’t have art backgrounds.  But how the heck did they get to their junior and senior year with little if any visual communication acumen?  Hey, it’s not just them, I’ve seen PhDs and active business professionals who are no better at using PowerPoint as well.

Before I move on, let me please say that most presenters use just about one or two of the sixty-four crayons in the PowerPoint crayon box.  That’s one problem.  The other is what my students have heard me refer to as putting five pounds of poop in a two pound poop bag.  So, with this in mind, I’m going to offer you some free PowerPoint presentation tips even though it’s had its day in my classroom.  Regardless of whether or not it is used to its fullest capacity or, whether any standards or graphic or visual communication is being maintained, it’s the end of the road for PowerPoint.

But, if you’re still using PowerPoint, the greatest problems you face as a presenter is time, darkness and disinterest.  Any two of the three challenges are in-play at any given time.  The kiss of death is when all three are working in-concert against you.  Time is a precious commodity.  Your audience is offering you their time in exchange for useful knowledge and, the inspiration to apply that knowledge at their first opportunity.  Darkness is a requirement for show slides.  It is also a big factor in inducing sleep when assisted by a long, dull presentation in a stuffy or hot room.  If these demons I just mentioned weren’t enough - disinterest will take care to totally nullify your presentation and assist the audience to slip into a deep coma.

The Five Ps are old trick of the trade commandments that are still relevant and should continue to be your presentation guide.  Proper Preparation does Prevent Poor Performance!  With that being said and it hopefully being adequate enough to stand on its own, here are some – Tips to Help You Prevent Presentation Coma:

                     

IS YOUR AUDIENCE STUPID?  Do Not Insult Your Audience!  They can read.  Do not read from your PowerPoint slides unless you want them to immediately slip into the dreaded coma.  PowerPoint slides are not the script or the narrative.  They act as cue cards for you and function as visual sign posts for your audience.  Think of the cue cards and sign posts concept as the old piano duet – Heart and Soul.  The cue cards and sign posts are one hand and your verbal presentation is the other hand.

DOES YOUR AUDIENCE LIKE BEING LOST?  Guide them!  Your PowerPoint slides should be sequenced into three distinct parts; the beginning or set-up part, the middle or the ah ha! part and the bring-it-on-home and wrap-it-up part.   Remember, no matter how dry the information is, you’re telling a story.  The beginning or set-up part reminds your audience why they’re there and introduces them to the only thing they care about – what’s in it for me?   The middle or the ah ha! part of your presentation is not about you reaching the half-way point, it’s about leading them to the conclusion that what you’ve said so far was not only worth staying awake for, it gave them part of the answer or the hope or the inspiration they were looking for.

Once you’ve achieved holding them in rapt attention, you have to give them a glimpse of the solution or, the reason why they’re there.  So, you have to bring-it-on-home and wrap-it-up with whatever your call to action is.  And, if you’ve brought the audience to believe that whatever it is your offering is of value to them; what will they be willing to do next?  That’s when you reveal your call to action.

DOES YOUR AUDIENCE HATE BEING ENTERTAINED? Make it more than just a presentation – tell them a story!  What kind of story should you tell them?  There are for kinds.  Will yours be a comedy?  A Drama?  How about a Romance (the old fashioned word for high-adventure)?  There’s Irony, the perfect setting to show what happened to those who chose to ignore everything you just told them they shouldn’t ignore. Remember, stories have characters, plot twists and great endings.  Help your audience visualize your story with the appropriate colors, type and graphics.

DOES YOUR AUDIENCE HATE BREVITY? Avoid the error of putting five pounds of poop in a two pound poop bag.  Less is more!  Remember the other old suggestion - K.I.S.S. (politically corrected now as Keep It Simply Simple).    Limit each slide to no more than three bullet points of two lines each for a total of six lines of type.   Yes, even if that means you’ve tripled the number of slides!  In order to keep to this line limit, edit your words.  Use short-speak or incomplete sentences.  You’re not writing a book!  Case in point is this paragraph that made its rounds in cyberspace.  It’s been passed around so many times since 2003 that I couldn’t find  a better source than David Harris:

Fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? And I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

DOES YOUR AUDIENCE LIKE CHOKING ON INFORMATION? Remember, people eat with their eyes!  The old term for presentations with slides was called an audio-video presentation.  You’re the audio part.  Make sure the visual part: colors, type and graphics are visually stimulating.  Here is where Robin Williams’ Four Principles of Design (C.R.A.P ) comes in handy.  C.R.A.P stands for contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. 

• Contrast is important.  In non-artist or designer terms it means stand-out.  You shouldn’t use red type, for example on a black background.  Every element on your slides needs to stand-out in order to be easily read.  The rule of thumb is to make things easy to read by not making them too small or too cluttered.  

• Repetition is important even if it’s simply keeping your logo or brand on every slide.  Repetition can also be seen as consistency – everything should match! 

• Alignment or, where everything is placed on every slide is important.  That means that all header information is in the exact same spot so it doesn’t jump up and down; visually annoying your audience. 

•  Proximity is about closeness and grouping.  Images next to text usually indicate they describe or support each other.  Speaking of proximity, your PowerPoint slides should be sequenced (grouped) into three distinct parts; the beginning or set-up part, the middle or the ah ha! part and the bring-it-on-home and wrap-it-up part.  

WHAT'S THE UNIVERSAL PRESENTATION PROBLEM? Putting five pounds of poop in a two pound poop bag! Most presenters have too few slides with too much information on each slide.  As Moe on the Three Stooges used to say – spread out!  Increase the amount of your slides while limiting the information on them.  If you follow these tips, your presentation will be lively and entertaining and, you’ll get your point across in the same amount of time or less.  

What about the rabid note takers?  Give them the URL where you’ve posted the presentation or, printout the PowerPoint presentation as a handout.  Stop using PowerPoint if your goinng to present as if you were reading out of a book to a child.  Remember, when you do, your goal IS to put them to sleep!

LONG LIVE POWERPOINT!  As for PowerPoint itself.  Time to learn how to do video.  In fact, starting next semester, all of my students are going to be required to do their course presentations as a video.  Why, regardless of how good a PowerPoint may be, in this day and age, attention spans are shorter.  We are all used to receiving bits of information bur in massive amounts.  Think of as being spoon fed a Tweet at a time. 

No one sits still.  No one can focus on any one thing longer than two and a half minutes.  According to the BBC, university students only have '10-minute attention span.  Regardless of who your audience is, between media over-stimulation and lack of sleep, the last thing you want to do is cause  a PowerPoint induced coma.

7 Practical Skills Learned in Drawing Class Anyone Can Use Everyday

What Learning Art is Good for in Southcoast, MA – INCREASED POWERS OF OBSERVATION.  X-RAY VISION.  GREATER AWARENESS OF CONTRAST AND NUANCE.  PROPORTION.  PATTERNS.  PLUMB AND LEVEL.  SPATIAL RELATIONS.   These are some of my favorite things as the old song goes.  Whether some people know it or not, learning art is useful and the lessons learned have practical every-day uses.  Here are seven things you can use everyday that you can take away from my drawing class. 

                                                                                                                                       

SKILL NUMBER ONE - You’ll become a better observer.  Learning to draw will increase your power of observation even if you’re a guy.  As most women believe – men don’t notice anything. But, let’s not go there right now.  Your observation skills improve because drawing class teaches you how to look.  The better your looking gets, the more your seeing improves.  It is true that many people look but don’t really see.  This skill is a general one.  However, it is the gateway to many other skills.  THE TAKE-AWAY: Being a better observer offers you many benefits that you can use everyday because you’ll be more aware.  Being more aware brings more pleasures to the eye and so much more.

  

SKILL NUMBER TWO – You, as a better observer, will also gain the power of x-ray vision.  Drawing exercises force you to see the underpinnings of things.  Structure is what everything hangs on.  Bone structure especially.  Once you learn human anatomy in a life class, you’ll understand your body better.  You’ll also understand more about what makes some people more visually attractive than others and it’s not just the amount or shape of the padding on the chest and bottom area.  Imagine being able to see through clothing not as a voyeuristic thrill but as an aesthetic pleasure.  The more you understand the figure of another person, the more you’ll understand yours.  There’s much more to this skill. THE TAKE-AWAY: The really practical part is this skill helps you select your wardrobe better. It helps you see through things to get to the core of things.

SKILL NUMBER THREE – You’ll see more colors, shades and contrasts, and nuances than ever before.  Awareness, or more correctly, greater awareness is the all encompassing skill you’ll develop in my drawing classes.  What you’ll become more aware of are colors and shades. It’s amazing how black and white many people are.  For the most part, they are limited in their perception of shades as gray.  One gray fits all for them.  As for colors, until you take this course, you may be doomed to saying – all greens look alike to me.   THE TAKE-AWAY: Once you start seeing contrasts and nuances, a whole new world will open up to you.

SKILL NUMBER FOUR – Imagine being better able to understand the importance of proportion and being more spatially aware. There’s that word again – aware.  Better proportion awareness is all about knowing how-to compare the relationship between things when it comes to size, quantity or the ratio of things and their parts to each other.  It’s always valuable to know about symmetry, harmony and  balance.  Having a sense of proportion reveals the significance of things. THE TAKE-AWAY:  A sense of proportion when coupled with an objective view reveals the beauty of things that may have once been hidden to you. 

SKILL NUMBER FIVE – Once you start to see patterns you’ll see the rhythm of life.  Being pattern aware is important because, although more people relate the concept of pattern to dressmaking, it’s also about natural occurrences in climate or weather or, the spots on a leopard.  In art, pattern is about visual occurrence and its frequency, whether repetitive or alternating or alternating repetition.  THE TAKE-AWAY: Seeing, feeling and anticipating both erratic and consistent occurrences, characteristics and configurations, as well as, forms, styles, or methods.

SKILL NUMBER SIX – You’ll see the world through the cross-hairs of a telescopic site – everything is either plumb, level or something in between. When something is plumb, it’s completely vertically straight.  When something is level, it’s completely horizontally straight.  Of what use id this?  Ask a carpenter.  The greatest challenge in learning this skill is in overriding your brain’s tendency to straighten things out that aren’t really straight.  THE TAKE-AWAY: You won’t ever have to ask anyone if the picture you just hung on the wall is straight – you’ll know and it might drive you a bit nuts. Being aware of the plumb and level of things does have its upside!

SKILL NUMBER SEVEN – Learning about spatial relations takes in a bit of everything you’ve learned in numbers One through Six.  What value does this skill have?  Ever had to move a new piece of furniture into your house?  Then, you may find this as one of the most practical of all of these skills.  On the aesthetic side of things; a developed sense of spatial relations gives you both a real, as well as, a virtual sense of the space you’re in through your new knowledge of alignment; where things are in space and, proximity; where things are in relation to each other. THE TAKE-AWAY: A new-found sense or awareness of place, which defines where or the way in which you or something is situated in relation to everything else.  Comes in handy for parallel parking, too!

There are far more than just seven practical skills that you’ll learn and use.  These new skills aren’t limited to just being practical; there are many aesthetic skills as well. So here you are; skills far beyond just developing your eye-hand coordination.  Take a drawing course and open your eyes a bit more!

The Bare Facts: Nude v. Naked

How One Man’s Broccoli is Another Man's Asparagus in the Southcoast, MA – HERE’S A POST THAT ATTEMPTS TO BLEND WHAT I BELIEVE IS SIMILAR ABOUT MARKETING AND ART –  Why?  It’s partly an exercise and a leap of faith.  Much of drawing is about focused observation.  By that, I mean, really looking at what you’re looking at.  Observation feeds perception and perception frames reality.  In business, you have to be observant.  Vigilant.  Every nuance.  Every inflection.  Everything offers a clue.  But, you have to know what you’re looking at.  You can’t jump to any conclusions.  You have to be aware of patterns and trends.

When you look, regardless of who you are, business (marketer) person or draftsman (artist), what are you looking at?  What do you see?  The old chestnut of one man’s trash being another man’s treasure is the same as one man’s opportunity is another man’s threat comes down to one thing – perception.  My college art instructor Herb Cummings used to have his own  version of that old chestnut: One man’s broccoli is another man’s asparagus. 

What it means is, that there is a danger of allowing our preconceptions to cloud or distort our judgement.  Eye witness reports are unreliable for that very reason.  What you see may not be what you’re actually seeing because you’re not looking at what you’re looking at objectively or, with objectivity.  Much of art (appreciation) is about objectivity.  Case in point: A work of art depicting an unclothed woman.  One observer sees a nude figure.  The other sees a naked woman.  The painting or sculpture hasn’t changed.  Why then, are the observations entirely different?  Does education or experience, or the lack of either define the objectivity of the observation? 

In art school, live drawing classes or, figure drawing classes, utilize the unclothed human figure.  Some of you reading the preceding sentence read it as follows: In art school, live drawing classes, or figure drawing classes, utilize naked models. While, others read it as: In art school, live drawing classes, or figure drawing classes, utilize the nude figure.  Why?  Maybe, it’s a reflection of either your present state of mind, or your lack of perspective on the subject.  Maybe it’s straight-out stereotyping and prejudice as a result of your cultural or religious background.  Whether a model is nude or naked to you may be a matter of your sense of morality. Where to an artist, it’s a matter of aesthetics. 

Perhaps this may be helpful: The model is only nude when no sexual thought enters into your perception. Why are nude models used as part of drawing (art) instruction?  Because it is a tradition handed down to us from ancient Greece and Rome.  They believed the human body was to be glorified for what it was objectively.  It was not objectified.  That in a nutshell is the difference between nude and naked.  Learning how to draw the unclothed human figure is difficult for many reasons on many levels.  I plan on doing a post devoted exactly to this. 

Art instruction, (yeah, here comes the pun) strips away the student’s preconceptions of what drawing is, as well as, the subject, motif or model, clothed or otherwise, in front of them.  Looking exercises force them to really see what they’re looking at.  It does this through a series of objective (there’s that word again) exercises.  The students think the exercises are just drawing exercises when in reality, they’re looking exercises.  One of which has the students drawing everything that isn’t the subject, motif or model.  It helps students see the subject, motif or model from a different perspective.  Wasn’t it Christ who said, “…seek and you will find…”?   

Part of the spiritual awakening that comes with learning how to draw is the finding – the finding of yourself. He also said, in reference to his doubting apostle Thomas, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."  If I’m going to tie drawing and spirituality together based on “Religion and art – the hallmarks of civilization...” then, I’m going to present to you that learning to draw (art) is a leap of faith requiring the student to trust the teacher and themselves. Speaking of faith; religion(s) has been entwined with Art through one, many or all of its manifestations of drawing/painting, music, dance and singing.  At several points in history, they were inseparable.  I have a whole theory of the current state of both but, I’ll visit that at another time.

 

This presence and level of trust determines what you see.  With all of this in mind, the difference between the observer (draftsman), or the viewer of the drawing, seeing an unclothed or, a nude figure is based on the same reason one business person sees an opportunity for what it is, or for what it may be – a threat.  What separates the two is perspective, which is an interesting word.  It is defined as one’s view or outlook of the subject, or point of view.  It is about posessing an ability to perceive the actual interrelations or comparative importance of things.  Much of marketing then is no different than art; it is about sustaining an acute level of observation and objectivity as well.

Most interestingly, perspective is also defined as a technique utilized by artists to represent three-dimensional objects and depth relationships on a two-dimensional surface. Linear perspective was both en vogue and the new standard in art during the Renaissance. Perspective changed a lot more than art.  It also changed how Westerners viewed themselves and the World.  It was as if Europeans were seeing space and their surroundings for the first time.  

Jacques Cauvin, the archaeologist who started his career in the Paleolithic era caves in France, spoke of a "revolution of symbols." He viewed this revolution as a shift in the ability of humans to conceptualize.  The revolution gave humans the ability to imagine gods.  Drawing went from an act of observing and duplicating (or, recording) the surrounding natural environment to imagining, through symbols (which developed into writing), the supernatural and a metaphysical universe beyond the perceived physical world to assist in answering who we are, why we’re here and whether or not we’re alone..

IMAGE: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres - Little Bather or Inside a Harem - 1828