Lesson on Underpainting, (with DaVinci)

Sunset and Dr. King

Driving to class last night, I watched a beautiful sunset.
It had the edges of a Rothko with much more subdued colors. (I realized how important it is to continue his late work. There was a particularly peachy cloud with a very pale phthalo blue surrounding it. Perhaps the work for Gift of Time.

On the drive I was listening in on On Point talking about Baltimore. The drastic contrast between the horror of what I was listening to and the beauty that I was seeing was startling. At the end the two merged. The last five minutes of the program was dedicated to Dr. King. His vibrato voice had the same quality of the colors of the sunset. It was a profound 5 minutes.

Art Meets Science and Spirituality in a Changing Economy

http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/8247/Art-Meets-Science-and-Spirituality-in-a-Changing-Economy---Pt--1---From-Fragmentation-to-Wholeness

Rothko, color as a representative for tragedy, ecstasy and doom

"...only in expressing basic human emotions — tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on. And the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions . . . The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationship, then you miss the point." -Rothko or Marko Rotkovich as he had to change his name due to American antisemitism around the time of the Second World War

Rothko formula:

1. There must be a clear preoccupation with death - intimations of mortality... Tragic art, romantic art, etc., deals with the knowledge of death. 2. Sensuality. Our basis of being concrete about the world. It is a lustful relationship to things that exist. 3. Tension. Either conflict or curbed desire. 4. Irony, This is a modern ingredient - the self-effacement and examination by which a man for an instant can go on to something else. 5. Wit and play... for the human element. 6. The ephemeral and chance... for the human element. 7. Hope. 10% to make the tragic concept more endurable.

Class interruption

Sorry to use this platform for my class work. It is only through online format I can present my slide lectures. And the one way I have devised for showing the work as my google drive is inaccessible is through our blog.

I am finding the teaching fascinating. In the connections as well as the disconnect. While in it, I can only see the day to day. But I hope to have a period of reflection after the six weeks are over.

Students have been practicing drawing, painting, sculpture, etc. on resume paper. (A rich, textured, ivory colored surface.) I think appropriately these are their true 'diplomas' as they are a clear reflection of who they are and where they are at (in visual terms.) Will post this series over the weekend.

Montessori, Sensorial