 There is lofty speech in the colleges and universities on disinterested -- that is, impartial -- pursuit of truth. There is noble sentiment, again, on unfolding students' individuality through centering the action of learning and instruction on their persons. These disparate aims cannot quite join into an accord, but they want to tell the students they are loved. The price tag of a college education may soon reach 200,000 dollars. Can really so much love exist in academia?  The colleague long ago whom I most respected judged better: "It is the purpose of an education to save the student time," and "The student should not want to be the center of the educational process, for, if he is, he gets a lousy education." John Spencer Wherever may be found his likes, let me salute them here.  Question you might like to comment on : When and why is "student-centered?" appropriate?
In my advertisement redesign, I could not misspell a word. But in the work-a-day . . .  . . . errors are the Rule of our road. I deplore my -- and others' -- missteps, our slipshod haste and corner-cutting self-accommodation. Some follies I have ventured need forgetting . . . . There are failures that ignite the brain with comprehension. Those dead-endings become roadside lanterns shining very piecemeal upon the path ahead. Such errors have a value that deserves reporting to save a later worker needless wanderings and time. A century ago, aircraft seemed the miracle of their time, yet were full of aeronautical mistakes. Thus -- we fly today frequently and safely and at speed. Schoolboy mathematics can be a perfection, if the schoolboy knows the answers. Beyond the lecture hall and classroom, we build short-falls upon a fundament and ground plan of successive short-falls. This is never easy going. So, give yourself, and give to me, a liberty to celebrate each time we gain a pace or two ahead.    Feeling as EMOTION Live beings emote because they will to live. That is, they own a drive to outward action whose always purpose is to repair a deficit: when we are hungry we seek food, in peril -- safety. Along the path of labor on his pictures, an Artist learns the burden of emotion. For a work still incomplete is a wish not yet come true -- a short-fall to be mended. . . . and as RECEIVING Speaking of happiness emotes a need to reach a hearer -- perhaps a sharer. Happiness itself, however, enters the accepting heart as a near-celestial blessing and perfection of fulfillment. Emoting nothing, we partake wholly of a most liberal receiving. When art works render depths of grief and dire misadventure, they will not make happy. Yet, if they engage all our attention and whole participation, they afford fulfillment. We are not strong enough to endure for long this all-demanding state of being. The spirit wanders. Our attention must soon divide, and the lacks of our world require care.   In art we think non-representation is abstraction. My page here shows a path of derivation -- that is, abstraction -- in four frames.  Abstraction also has a farther reach: a tree, a house, a dog and boulder hold nothing, so it seems, in common. But there is one thing -- they all own cubic magnitude. Thus, solid form is an abstraction of each thing we see -- an abstraction of the world.   In daily use a wooden board or a black line have but the meaning of their thickness and their length, and are only what they can be within these limits. Many boards and many lines will multiply, but cannot better the result.  But, when boards are shaped handsomely to make a thing of use, or line joins line to render a design lovely to behold, we are rewarded with a wealth of meaning. That meaning will be greater than the number of the parts by the exact measure of our labors of the hand and brain.   When Waves of Vogue Drown Every Common Sense Charles the Seventh, King of France, wore shoes so long he had to tie them to his knees that he could walk. Today we laugh at him and, repeat that Folly time and time again. 2015 After reading Mark Twain’s lengthy and beautiful Joan of Arc  Visual design is visual speech. To learn to speak it well is better than the pride of fashion. For, to be up-to-date is second-hand already and shopworn in your action and mine . . .  Curling Leaves, 1980s . . . unless we do it excellently better.  |
Johannes
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