Marie Claire article, some basic terms and a funny user-friendly guide to observing important features and striking up a conversation about visual art. It’s great to ask questions of artists and fellow patrons at galleries, and some vocabulary and idea of what to look for in artwork can help people formulate questions and make comments. Viva La Vida y El Arte!
You may not know your Lucian from your Sigmund, but you can still hold your own at the art museum with this conversation guide.
Portrait, Landscape or Still Life?
Are you looking at a person (portrait), place (landscape), or thing (still life)? Get off to a good start by using the correct term instead of calling the piece, “a picture.”
Form and Line
Shading and texture give an object form, and generally make a piece look realistic. Talking about line is another way to discuss the shaping of the objects in the piece. Are facial features well defined and detailed (if you’re discussing a portrait), or more subtle? Form and line also give an object movement or a sense of being static. Use your intuition. It’s unlikely that a bowl of fruit will have much movement.
Negative Space
When you’ve said everything you can say about what’s in the painting or sketch, talk about what’s not there — the negative space in the piece.
Read more here:
http://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity-lifestyle/how-to/life-advice/talk-about-art?link=emb&dom=yah_life&src=syn&con=blog_marieclaire&mag=mar
Now, the article on Grandma Lois’ gentle artistry of kindness and human touch, which neuroscientists are finding out is incredibly important for young children’s cognitive development.
By Debra Skodack of the Kansas City Star:
Jayda Norman fusses. She squirms and cries.
“It’s OK. You’re OK.”
Jayda’s dark brown eyes look up to where those hushed words are coming from.
Grandma Lois is here.
Jayda relaxes as she nestles her tiny body into Grandma Lois’ cradled left arm. Together, they rock. Back and forth. Back and forth. Jayda’s eyes slowly close.
Everything is all right. Grandma Lois is here.
Five days a week, Lois Lakey comes to Children Mercy Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.
The 73-year-old Kansas Citian has been volunteering here every weekday for a remarkable 12 years. Her job is powerfully simple: She is there to rock the babies.
“She brings a kind of warmth and a human feeling to the bedside,” says Howard Kilbride, the physician who is medical director of the unit.
Read more here:
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1188057.html
