‘I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.’

— John Cage

John Cage was a creative, innovative master of music. He was one of the original Black Mountain School of Arts in the Blue Ridge.  Black Mountain School was in the 1940-1950's was filled with artists who would later become famous on the national and international scene. 

Founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and other former faculty members of Rollins College, Black Mountain was experimental by nature and committed to an interdisciplinary approach, attracting a faculty that included many of America's leading visual artists, composers, poets, and designers, like Buckminster Fuller, who invented the geodesic dome.

Operating in a relatively isolated rural location with little budget, Black Mountain College inculcated an informal and collaborative spirit and over its lifetime attracted a venerable roster of instructors. Some of the innovations, relationships, and unexpected connections formed at Black Mountain would prove to have a lasting influence on the postwar American art scene, high culture, and eventually pop culture.^{[citation needed]} Buckminster Fuller met student Kenneth Snelson at Black Mountain, and the result was the first geodesic dome(improvised out of slats in the school's back yard); Merce Cunningham formed his dance company; and John Cage staged his firsthappening^[3] (the term itself is traceable to Cage's student Allan Kaprow, who applied it later to such events).

Not a haphazardly conceived venture, Black Mountain College was a consciously directed liberal arts school that grew out of theprogressive education movement.  Source, Wikipedia, Black Mountain School of Arts

I went to a University that was at the beginning of its creation.  University of South Florida was  patterned after UCLA to be innovative and progressive.  Many professors and speakers are drawn to a new university and mine was no exception.  I had the wonderful privilege to have many innovative professors and hear exceptional national speakers.  Two I will always remember were Joseph Albers and Carl Sandburg.  Both were remarkable men that influenced me the rest of my life.  Joseph Albers was one of the founders and administrators of Black Mountain School of Arts.   Another of my favorite artist that taught at Black Mountain was Robert Rauschenberg.  

Jasper Johns/American Flag/A Study of Color

Many of you are already well versed with Jasper Johns who gained prominence during the Pop Art era, but not all of you may have experienced his study of color in the green and orange version of his American Flag series.  There is a little white dot in the center of the painting, stare without blinking for a minute or so, the immediately look at a blank white wall.  You will be amazed at what you see. The American flag in red, white and blue will appear! It is based on color opposites and that you eye will see the other.  If you don't get it the first time, just try again. 

I worked with John's orange and green American flag in a traveling art museum we had for elementary students, and the students were just awe struck.  They were won over to modern art by Jasper Johns and Claus Oldenburg's soft sculpture of French Fries. 

Joseph Albers was another artist is who studied how colors effect one another as they are next to each other.

The World of Glass Fusion continued...

Glass Fusion

Clicking on this will take you to a glass fusion org.

In the first photo you see some of the choices of dichroic glass. It is a very expensive glass to buy because of the production process. I will include a link for you to research the process if your are interested. Some of these designs almost seem holographic.

The photo's below are by one of my fellow classmates who love dichroic glass also. These have a black background that you can see when the pieces don't meet. The colors are so rich to the eye. I love the highly textured pieces, as well as, the gold. When one buys sample packs by the half pound you get what ever color or design they put in the pack. So sometimes it is what you want and other times not.

The examples below are another example of woven glass.

The photo below is Betsy W's work, one of three Betsy's in a small art class. Funny I went my whole life with never having another Betsy in my whole school, much less a small art class. Betsy is putting square sections together to meld in an almost abstract Joseph Albers' pattern for hanging in a window.

The three photo's below are the work and planning of my classmate and friend Monica. She has a detailed meticulous approach to her craft, and it shows beautifully in her work. Monica is from Peru and using many of the Incan designs in her art. I include a photograph of her planning pattern she creates to follow for the design. It shows the intricate careful planning she puts into her work. Artists work very differently in their planning and art processes. Some artists plan ahead and make models or drawings to follow, others research and think but work intuitively. I am the latter.

Science and Art/Joseph Albers

Ah, the creative process is the same secret in science as it is in art. They are all the same absolutely.

Josef Albers

I had the wonderful opportunity to hear Josef Albers speak when I was a university student. The university was relatively new with a wonderful art department made up of professors who had come from many art programs across the country. It was an exciting time to be there with new teachers, a new program, and a new university. Joseph Albers had been invited to talk to the art students. It was an intimate setting in a small lecture room. There Joseph Albers talked about color in a way I had never heard before. He showed many slides of his work and talked about how colors influence each other. He talked about the science of color and I was mesmerized. I loved science and remembered memorizing the scientific method in school. Later I realized it was the artist process as well. My Mother was a science teacher and taught us a love of nature and science. Science is experimentation, so is art. Science is discovery, so is art. Science is divergent and convergent thinking, so is art. There are many ways they are the same as Albers says.