Creative Impulse: Reading- Why There’s No Such Thing As ‘Outsider’ Art

     To understand the content of a piece one must not label.  Jerry Saltz describes this discrimination art galleries have towards outsider artists as a way for them to control what is considered modern and trending. The separation between the art world revolves around the simplistic idea that one is more or less experienced. This is only to convey a sense of empowerment over another. This sense of entitlement comes from a piece of paper given by an institution of some sort. Nothing concrete, nothing permanent because as soon as new guidelines are set in place you will no longer be considered an insider artists. 

     Institutions are set to give a set of rules of what can and cannot be done. Limiting the mind of an artist while increasing its technical skill. Emphasizing more on the technique and aesthetic and less on the artists creative impulse. This prevents outsider artists to be as equally recognized by society as visionary artists. To summarize what was read, art is ever expanding and so elaborate it would be naive to label or limit art for what it is. 

Creative Impulse: Reading-The White Bird

     Humans tend to seek comfort through the use of art. Expressing our emotions, hoping to let out what we let in. The truth of the matter is that art is only a reflection of natures creation. We only attempt to stop the moment so we can make the perishable become permanent. The white bird may be a referring to natures beauty for many, while still symbolizing hope of life for the peasants who face harsh and long winters. 

     Going in depth with the execution of the white bird, John Berger explains every aspect that came to play when creating the wooden dove. He emphasizes on its creation because that is its own art form. The materials and skills used to create such an astonishing piece of work is a reflection of the artists environment. While the peasants created these white wooden birds, living ones struggled to survive. This comes to show that nature can be cruel and unfair while still being admired. 

Creative Impulse: Exercise-Paper Folding

In-Class paper folding exercise

WARP First Post

Hi Class, 

Please copy and paste the following text to use as your first blog post. It will also serve as a reference for you when organizing and labeling your blog posts:

Labels Help You Organize

All blog posts must be labeled with two keywords, which blogger calls Labels. When faculty visits your blog for evaluation purposes, we will use the labels to quickly find your work. If you do not use the keywords properly, we will not be able to find your work. Proper set-up and maintenance of your blog falls under the Research and Participation part of your grade which counts for 30% of the overall semester grade. 

Topical Keywords

The first set of keywords correspond to the module we are working in. We will refer to these as topical keywords since they correspond to the topic we are exploring over the two-week periods. Your first group of posts will be labeled under Topic: Creative Impulse since this is the first topic (Topic #1). Here are the topical keywords you will use through out the semester:

Topic: Creative Impulse

Topic: Pattern and Ornament

Topic: Rhinoceros

Topic: Narrative

Topic: Landscape

Topic: Zine

Categorical Keywords

The second set of keywords will organize your posts according to kind. Here are the Keywords you will use for Labels:

Exercises - tag for posts documenting all assigned exercises. The first one will be the paper folding exercise from the first class. 

Readings - tag for posts containing your two paragraph responses to the assigned readings. The first ones will be for "The White Bird" and the Jerry Saltz article from Vulture.com. 

Small Works - tag for posts documenting all assigned small works. The first blog post labeled Small Works will contain images and accompanying descriptions of the three small works you complete for the Creative Impulse Module (Topic #1). 

In-Depth Projects - tag for posts documenting all assigned In-Depth projects. The first blog post labeled In-Depth Projects will contain images (or video if appropriate) and accompanying descriptions of the more robust work you produce in response to the Creative Impulse Module (Topic #1).

Outside Visits - tag for posts containing your two paragraph responses to all required visits outside of the classroom. These include visits we do together as a class [during class time] or individually outside of class time. 

Please be sure to use both a topical and categorical keyword when labeling your posts.

Next Steps

1. After copying and pasting this text into your first blog post, create your labels from the keywords we listed above. In the Edit post window you will find an area titles Labels where you can add your own custom labels to your blog. This is where you will add the keywords we listed above. Please be sure to add all keywords to the Labels window for this first blog post. 

The easiest way to do this is by copying and pasting the following text into the Labels window for this blog post:

Topic: Creative Impulse, Topic: Pattern and Ornament, Topic: Rhinoceros, Topic: Narrative, Topic: Landscape, Topic: Zine, Exercises, Readings, Small Works, In-Depth Projects, Outside Visits

Here's a screen shot of what that looks like, and where to find Labels when editing a post

2. Now you are ready to create and label your first post. This will be the post for your in-class paper folding exercise. 

It should include a photo of your paper exercise and be labeled with the following two keywords: Topic: Creative Impulse, Exercises

3. Once you have complete all the above steps, please email a link to your new blog to me at: lambert.nwsa [at] gmail [dot] com. We will link your blog to the Art Unfolded blog.