Education Through Art

A recent photo of the new British Virgin Island High School which was scheduled for completion in September 2022.

Regardless of the predictable constructional delay, the "new" BVI High School building is already outdated in terms of its ability to accommodate the new concepts that are desperately needed in education.

Actually, the "new concepts" are not all that new. They date back to when Herbert Read published his ground-breaking book "Education Through Art" eighty years ago.

The Caribbean is rich in natural resources but lacking in the one essential human resource that is needed to benefit from this abundance: that is, the ability to think and work creatively.

Research indicates that children are born with 98% the creative potential of genius. However, as they go through life, the figure falls dramatically.  At the age of eight, the percentage has dropped to 32%.  By the time they reach thirteen, peer pressure has brought it down to 10%, and by adulthood, conformity has reduced it to less than 2%.

Given the importance of creativity and the fact that at least 50% of children are creatively, rather than academically inclined, we would benefit if our schools and colleges gave more attention to the subject.

Nor should it be limited to what is perceived art. My work as an engineer demands just as much creative input as does my work as a sculptor and painter.  Creative thinking enhances academic qualifications but it is not necessarily dependent on them.

Apart from a technical block (presumably focused towards motor mechanics) and a small amphitheater, the new building appears to be a warren of regimented classrooms. I see nothing in the plans that caters for the creative arts in general: music, dance, fashion design, architecture, theatre, ceramics, painting, sculpture, carpentry, etc.

To think and work creatively demands courage, vision, initiative, innovation and resourcefulness. It thrives on doing rather than theorizing. Creativity fosters individuality and resists regimentation. Specialization and rote learning hamper the all-embracing aspect of creativity and committees are its death knell.

Perhaps the new school was designed by a committee!

On my own terms

A page from my book Notes on the Nude

My book Notes on the Nude has languished in the side bar of this blog for almost four years. Three years ago, I promised that I was working on it.  But then everything ground to a halt due to social media's horror of nakedness. All publishers have fought shy of the content, which is nothing more shocking than the page that illustrates this post. 

But enough is enough, and rather than modify the book to suit their prudish community guidelines, I will publish it on my own terms as an in house eBook. This makes sense in that the followers of this blog are scattered throughout the world. Many of them are art students and the cost of a hard copy would be beyond their means. Furthermore, since the 2017 hurricane, we have had no postal service from my island in the Caribbean - other than the prohibitive cost of sending by courier. 

Once again, I'm working on it. 

O muse. wherefore art thou.

Figures, palms and ruins, Caneel Bay, St John, 1989. 

The ravages of time has diminished the ebullience of the opening watercolour, but the lyrical quality that remains can be directly attributed to the influence of my muse. 

In an article about the role of the artist's muse, Germaine Greer writes:

A muse is anything but a paid model. The muse in her purest aspect is the feminine part of the male artist, with which he must have intercourse if he is to bring into being a new work. She is the anima to his animus, except that, in a reversal of gender roles, she penetrates or inspires him and he gestates and brings forth, from the womb of the mind...Artists have painted their wives over and over again, but their wives were their subjects rather than their muses.

At its best, the relationship between the artist and his muse is a platonic love affair. It is not dependent intellectual understanding, nor of conscious influence. The muse has no desire to create of her own accord. She displays none of the censoring influence of those who want to create but can't. She is that compassionate smile that leads the artist's unsuspecting heart on a merry chase.

O muse. wherefore art thou.

Missing but not forgotten

Alice. Seated with head resting on hands.

While searching through hundreds of colour slides and prints I found faded photographs of these two drawings from my 1989 BVI exhibition "A Portrait of Alice". The exhibition served to highlight the natural beauty of the Afro-Caribbean woman - Alice my model and assistant was from the island of St. Vincent. None of the drawings sold, and all but these two remain in my collection. The two that are missing but not forgotten, were given as gifts; one to Alice, and one to the manager of the hotel that bravely sponsored the exhibition.

The year that I worked with Alice marked a turning point in my work; from the popularity of palm fringed beaches to the beauty and profundity of the human form. 

Alice. Seated with hands resting on back of chair.

Alice. Portrait Bust.

My portrait bust of Alice was also included in the exhibition and has pride and place in my studio.

Beauty that goes abegging

 

Portrait, Denise 1992

After highlighting the depths of depravity in my last post, as witnessed in images of the British Virgin Island's August Festival, I now substitute the gross, course and hideous with this early portrait of my wife Denise. 

It's my attempt to put the record straight and reclaim beauty that goes abegging. 

Differentiating between nude and lewd

British Virgin Island August Festival Celebrations (Photo Credit BVI News Online)

My comments on differentiating between nude and lewd were first posted on this blog over four years ago. Nothing has changed. Whereas social media has no problem with the opening picture, they find the following photograph of work in progress on my life-size sculpture of the reclining nude violates their community guidelines.