From the Thoughts of an Artist..

I think I have exhausted my own knowledge and opinion on art in our local culture, so I decided to look at the perspective of a real-life local artist and friend of mine, Wendy Weatherly. She is a sophomore architecture major at Texas A&M from Amarillo, TX and has some great thoughts on the topic. When asked about local opportunities for artists to put their work on display, Wendy opened my eyes to some new things that I had not yet discovered.

"Bryan and College Station have many Theatres, I recently saw a play at 'Stage Center' which was very enjoyable. A&M has many organizations which promote the arts, including 'One Love' which had a place set up on campus where students could paint canvases. I loved getting to take a moment out of the day to just paint and reflect. Downtown Bryan also has "first friday" where there are many artistic venues... Jewelry, music, paintings, architecture, furniture, theatre are all forms of art and you can see all these things in downtown Bryan."

Wendy also had a great response when I asked her about her views on the way art can impact the culture of a community suggesting that art has more influence on an individual than a community as a whole.

"Art is abstract and can be interpreted in many ways. This simple thought pertains to our culture because people are all very different: from what we look like to what we believe. Art is prevalent in everyday of life, however, the way you see it will determine how it impacts your life. For example: The Albritton Clock Tower on campus means something to me, because it impacted my route everyday when I walked underneath it, I enjoyed listening to the chime. Most people do not have the same appreciation of the clock tower because they probably didn't have the same experiences as me to make any kind of impact. In many cases; the impact of art is a personal choice. You can choose to make something of it or not."

While Wendy thinks the impact of art depends on the individual, she does believe that its prevalence is significant enough as a of our everyday life. We just have to choose to notice it or not and the way in which we allow it to affect us.

Wendy is a well-rounded artist to say the least. Her skills center more around music and theater. She has been singing and dancing since she was 3 years old and acting since she was 12 years old. Her parents often took her to musicals and exposed her to other creative outlets. Their influence played a role in her interest to use her studies in architecture to possibly design opera houses and performing arts centers. The artwork at the top of the page is actually one of Wendy's originals. She used different mediums such as charcoal, paint, pastels, marker computer renderings and colored pencil to depict the way a knee-joint works. The knee is moving according to a dance move called the "torjette" which was on a staff of sheet music, so the knee also played a song. Through the different "moments" of the diagram you could understand the interior of the knee. Wendy thought it would be cool for me to include this piece because people can often interpret it differently than her primary intention and is an example how art influences an individual how they chose for it to.

Artworks

"Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it."
-- Berthold Brecht

There you have it folks. I must say I agree with the above quote. Art truly does have the potential to impact culture as it works on and forms the thoughts and characteristics of a time. You study an art piece and you can automatically tell a number of things about the time in which it was made. With art's significance in mind, I feel that I have established that the art culture is hurting somewhat in College Station. This seems to be the case nationwide as a result of an economy that is not stellar for any industry much less art. The less people can afford on inessential purchases like art, the more demand it puts on artists to find work outside of their craft. Less money equals less art and less art equals less culture!

I was reading on a blog from Badatsports.com that reminded me of this aspect of the issue and directed me to read a newly established paper called Art Works. Being written by artists, the paper has a unique approach on economics and labor as each topic relates to art and its role in the nation's culture. I recommend reading at least one or two of the articles on the Art Works site. One of the best ones I found is entitled, "Why Artists Need More than Creativity To Survive." It touches on how society can devalue artists and in turn not invest in their creativity. The image at the top of this post that I found on Art Works visually presents the effects of consumerism in the art world and the cycle of cause and effects.

In a more local scope, the Battallion published an article a few days ago about Rock the Republic coming to Brian on the 21st-23rd. Excitingly there will be art on display in addition to all the bands coming for the event.

local ARTISTS

Local artists keep streaming in as my knowledge of the creative community in our area increases. I am feeling more and more ignorant for not having known about some of these student organizations that exist before my search began here with The Right Brain Outlet. Another credible organization for creativity, rightly titled “TAMU ARTISTS,” has been making their imprint on A&M for two years now. They are a Christian group that brings together those who paint, write, play music, make film, sculpt, draw, or whatever your forte of creative expression might be, to collaborate using each others abilities to make a beautifully complex project for others to enjoy. You should take a look at just a few of some of the things that ARTISTS has created in their short existence. The variety and quality of their work is impressive to me and leaves me wondering why there are so few student orgs similar to The American Institute of Graphic Arts (check out last week’s blog) and ARTISTS.

The community-oriented culture of A&M seems conducive to collaborative efforts like these, and with a student population of over 48,000, you would think there would be more art groups and crafty displays forming. The numbers and desire to work together are present, what more could it take right? It’s just not that simple and other factors are keeping the artistic culture from being more prevalent on campus. I have found two student organizations so far that are artistically based at A&M. Compare that to the 30+ student organizations for artsy fartsy fun I found that are thriving at liberal arts based Williams College. They have 46,000 less students than we do but about 20 more artistic organizations. Go figure! One of the first things that came to mind for me is the fact that the most well noted undergraduate programs include majors like engineering, animal sciences, and business. We are not necessarily known for our liberal arts programs, making our school less attractive to people looking to be experts in more creative fields than a place like Williams College would be. I don’t mean to stereotype engineers and veterinarians but often times their interest or skill set for more “right brain” related outlets is limited. A&M’s culture simply reflects the students in it- the engineering career fair is one of the biggest days of the year while art displays are rare and far between- With the exception of the occassional livestock art exhibit. Yep you read that right, we cannot seem to get more run-of-the-mill art exhibits but who cares when you have got a livestock art exhibit?! I really don't have much sass most of the time, but for some reason this just pushed my sarcasm button and made me chuckle. But maybe livestock art is your thing.. if it is, the Batallion has got your back. Read the article they published about the four-legged themed exhibit. It just may tickle your utters, uh I mean fancy.

On-Campus Designers

A group of students called “The American Institute of Graphic Arts” is working to bring art to the Texas A&M campus through graphic design. These students agree that art is a vital cultural force, and as an organization work to help one another succeed as designers and educate on different methods and styles of design. Founded in 1914, AIGA can hardly be considered amateur. These student designers seem more professional than “student” to me because of the impressive quality and variety in what they make. Among the plethora of things they design are logos, shirts, posters, websites and business cards. AIGA's new project, "Green Tees," is to make old t-shirts into bags ("shags") that can be used primarily for grocery shopping or for whatever purpose someone’s heart desires! I believe their idea has the potential to not only get AIGA noticed more on campus but to encourage artistic outlets at A&M and in College Station. Maybe their eco-friendly approach will have more success than other creative endeavors. Using the environmentally conscious crowd that covers such a large audience may provide a better platform for their designs to get noticed faster. Another positive of AIGA is the variety in subjects they major in. From economics to visualization, they cover just about every area. I love that. Goes to show that art can be a connecting factor for people of all different interests and expertise.