AN ASTOUNDING FACT FOR THE ARTS!

There are more museums than McDonalds and Starbucks combined! Wow!
This fact comes from the article in the Washington Post.(click for article)

 Dali Museum                    St. Petersburg                                            from google for education only

THE THINKING MAN'S ART

CONCEPTUAL ART

Conceptual art is just that, it is based on a concept or idea. For many years I was not sure how to define myself or my art until I read about conceptual art. I have always been a teacher and a researcher.  I have loved both and often one generates the other.  I love thinking about how to relay an idea or concept to others.  Though much of my art is done intuitively that only happens when I get to the actual act of putting the material together.

Rene Magritte, Surrealist  

 Actually much research and thought goes into my art, as if I were writing a paper to present, or a class to teach.  I love learning and sharing what I have learned.  Being an art teacher for 37 years I do a good bit of both.  I learned early on the more I researched a lesson or a unit to teach students the more excited I was and the more the enthusiasm carried over to the students.  My research and my act of learning excited them and made them want to investigate and create.  

Ai Weiwei   Chinese Conceptual Artist
 from google image for  educational purposes

For all the years I taught I was an artist before and after, it was essential to me to always do art and share what I made. Working with conceptual art let me go back and forth between my world of teaching and my world of being an artist.  So I learned what I was doing was called Conceptual art and the realm I was working in was Surrealism.  These two areas gave me the path to doing intellect based art.  I could never be nor want to be a representational artist.  
Below are pictures form the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.  The architectural firm that designed the new Dali museum incorporated his interest in the double helix that is often found in his paintings. But the building design only allowed for one helix though.  

Of the last three conceptual art pieces I have done, one was 2 dimensional and two were  3 dimensional assemblage.  Both were created working from a theme for art membership shows at the Morean art center and one for the Dali Museum for a benefit. The piece for the Dali was done with Dali's complete history of Surrealism and his different periods in mind.  The theme was "Liquid Desires" working off many levels of meaning.  I responded with a piece named "Wet Dreams".  Freud's psychological theories were very prominent in the work of the surrealists. And in the piece I entered I included many symbols that would trigger unconscious meaning in the viewers mind. 

details of  assemblage "Wet Dreams"

The present piece I am working on will be conceptual and have multiple levels of meaning as well.  I am beginning with an African head and headdress base and then moving into universal themes and present day issues.  At least that is where my mind is now.  I am working with a sub theme of aphasia in on a personal level and on a universal level of the challenges of communication. The head itself lends one to think of speaking, communication, and reasoning.  African headdress often convey additional meaning in the details of what is woven or sewn or sculpted into the headdress.    Bits and parts of pieces of everyday life, a bit of a metal tag, a piece of cloth, a watch band, bullet casings, and what ever seems of value or to be honored.  It is a part of the celebration of life in the African culture where art is not a separate entity unto itself.  
I have been very interested in the concept of the brain, its function and how the separate parts of the brain can work independently when damaged.  My Mother had a stroke at 90 and had been having small TIA's for a few years before, my Grandmother also had a stroke and had brain damage.  In both cases I was and am intimately involved.  In addition half my career dealt with teaching special education with multiple handicaps and levels of thinking.  How the human brain functions is of great interest to me and I am in awe of how complex an organ it is.  
The piece I am working on now will at some level respond to all of  these issues.  It is still forming in my mind until it begins to form a shape and gel.  How will I work in all the ideas I have in mind and on all the varying levels at this point is still a mystery to me.  I would would like to incorporate a video loop somehow and/or layers of transparencies of images. The pieces below are the beginning of the collection of items I have collected or bought that I will be working with.

Head for designing hats

Antique Gas Mask

Ship building molds

*all highlighted areas are to click for more information

SCIENCE AND ART

A CLOSE ALLIANCE 
Art and Science

Earth's Atmosphere has little friction which allows stars and planets to move freely along their path….from google image, for education only

I have always thought music and math had an affinity for one another and visual art was more closely aligned with science.  Dali thought so as well.  He met often with the brightest scientific minds of his day.  He was mesmerized with the concept of DNA.  The new Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida has stairs that are designed after a helix.

Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida

Originally there were to be a double helix, but the building design did not allow for it.  The building it self is a hexagon. The same architectural firm that designed the triangle addition to the Louvre. 
For more information on Dali and the Dali Museum contact Peter Tush, Education Director.

Dali Museum with Hexagon Shapes on outside of building

A celestial storm                        from google image for education only

My Mother was a science teacher and I think it was her love of nature and science that influenced me to become an artist.

She taught us about the constellations, fossils, and the call of birds.  We opened geodes to find the crystalline beauty within, and we pieced together bones of ancient peoples who once lived on the coastal regions of Florida.  

Geodes like the ones we found on Ballest Point, Tampa

We looked through microscopes 
a
and telescopes to learn about the world around us. We had chemistry kits, and made light come alive without plugs, and volcanoes erupt with baking soda, and learned how apples

and onions can taste alike if ones nose is pinched. Life was a constant wonder and the exploration of our world fascinating.  I think growing up with my Mother was like one big science class in continual flux. 

The beauty of the world under the microscope…

Even the most deadly of diseases can look beautiful under the microscope  from google of education only

I ran across this article on the contribution of artists to science and found it very interesting…here is a section for you to read below for the full article just hit link.  It is a wonderful piece about the value of art to science.
The Contribution of the Artist to the Scientific Visualization

a paper given by Vibeke Sorensen

in a talk at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 1987

"An artist is many things, but generally it could be said that artists are individuals who are working towards a deeper understanding go the world in and around them.  Artists are acutely sensitive to the environment, organizers of large amounts of data into an aesthetic expression of his or her world.  Artists are the explainers and representers, pattern matchers, people who find unusual relationships between events and images.  Artists are creative interdisciplinarians.  They rework and integrate information subject to functions and tests, render or give data shape, express essence and make clear.  They help us to see in new ways and understand that which is difficult to see, making the invisible visible.

Artists are idea people, creators, and conceptualizers, predictors, people with ideas connected to the future.  They are people who create something completely original and new, something beyond the known boundaries of the information base.  By using or inventing tools, they show new uses and applications that synergize and synthesize fields.  Artist push the limits of technologies, bringing them to previously unattained goals.  They see the next steps, make leaps, put together elements in new and powerful ways.

Artists are bridges to the rest of the world. They understand perception and know how to communicate information.  They know the technologies and language of media.  Their work is linked to the general population as their inventions and ideas translate directly, often seen as improvements in understanding and the quality of life, improvements upon less efficient and more laborious methods of working, becoming mainstream as society discovers their work and catches up."

I can also remember when I was first introduced to the Scientific Method and thought someone had handed me a key to the universe! I thought oh what a practical way to make sense of solving any problems or questions one has.  It occurred to me how similar it is to the artistic process. 

The exploration of our world our space, the sensitivity to all of its nuances and connection make science and art natural partners. Check out the first link I provided for you on artists who use science in their work and then for fun track the space station live as it moves around the Earth!

Below are two sites for you to enjoy..one links you to artist using science in art work and the other to the Space Station live as it rotates around the world.

Artists who Use Science in Their Work 

The Space Station Live.  

Uniqueness of An Artists Vision

NO GREAT ARTIST SEES THINGS AS THEY ARE, OR THEY

WOULD CEASE BEING GREAT ARTIST.  oscar wilde

Dali Museum St. Petersburg Florida photo by elizabeth gordon

The Man Who Controlled the Weather: ART AND SCIENCE

 Berndnaut Smilde 

Recently a friend sent me a forward about an artist that I was not aware of, who had created a cloud in his studio.  By controlling humidity and temperature in a controlled environment Berndnaut was able to create a cloud that was sustainable.  Now this brings up the relationship that I have thought about all my years as an artist, that of science and art.  First lets look closer at Berndnaut and his art work. Below is a video from you tube that shows his process of creating and documenting a cloud as art work.  It is fascinating to watch.  

from you tube

Smilde is interested in the transient nature of things which he documents through photography. He uses a fog machine and moisture and lighting to create a floating cloud indoors. 

“I imagined walking into a museum hall with just empty walls. The place even looked deserted. On the one hand I wanted to create an ominous situation. You could see the cloud as a sign of misfortune. You could also read it as an element out of the Dutch landscape paintings in a physical form in a classical museum hall" 

Smilde Berndnaut      Creation of a Cloud                                                   from  google image for educational purposes only

I have long thought as an art teacher and artist that there is a direct correlation between science and art, as there is with music and mathematics.  I think my own interest in art came from my Mother who was a science teacher and creative thinker.  The scientific theory calls for experimentation and inquisitive thinking.  I can remember in middle school when I was introduced to the scientific theory, it was like a magic formula to me.  I thought with this I can do anything, it makes so much sense.  As an artist I discovered the artistic process is identical..it calls for discover, experimentation, and trial and error.  If one thinks about it art and science are natural compatibles...color theory in art and science, how light effects color, the chemical make up of the world and materials, the re-creation of visual elements, the creation of the idea of perspective, and the experimentation of thought processes in a visual way.

Dali was friends with the most accomplished scientists of his day.  His art often includes scientific theory and thought.  The double helix is in many of his works of art and the inner design of the stairs at the new Dali Museum in Florida.  

Photo by Elizabeth Gordon    Dali Museum,  St. Petersburg, Florida

photo by Elizabeth Gordon             Dali Museum

“Artmaking involves skills that can be learned. . . In large measure becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive. . . Even talent is rarely distinguishable, over the long run, from perseverance and lots of hard work.” David Bayles, Art and Fear

This is a wonderful book by David Bayles.  I highly recommend it to artists and aspiring artist for we all must come to terms with ourselves in the making of art.  It is an expression of our being, of our experiences and our perceptions.  It is the confidence which we put in ourselves that allows us to express our intent clearly...we must believe in and trust our ideas and the ability to communicate them in our own way.  

Elizabeth Gordon at Dali Museum with Surrealistic Found Object Sculpture
photo by Ann Suggs

Symbol of Woman, symbol of love, symbol of Motherhood

This is a close detail of the front of the art work for the Dali Museum. I wanted to highlight this for you and give you a bit more information. I found a picture of my Mother form the 1940's. If you look closely you will see her profile repeated twice in this section. The war planes are a reference to all wars, a nod to Dali's ants, and World War II. My Father was stationed in Guam with the Army Air Corp. He was a raido man on a B 52 Bomber. My Mother was alone, raising my brother in Mississippi. My Father did not see his son until Don was 5 years old. The dress form also has references to my Mothers expertise in sewing, it was beyond hobby, it was the skill of a tailor. She also was a science major, teaching biology, chemistry and physics as a young teacher. Her image reminded me of Gala, Salvador Dali's wife. I remember one photo, that he had put a halo over her head like an angel or saint. My Mother was truly a person that knew what unconditional universal love was. She taught me to respect all people, animals and life on this planet. She was the universal figure of Motherhood and that is how I used her picture and the symbology in this art work. Lela, a beautiful name, that is also the name of love.