THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602220144
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 15 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Ellen Riddle
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
I was in my twenties when I was first asked the question: What is art?
Dr. Smith, my philosophy of art instructor at East Carolina University, wanted to know. I was outraged. I was being forced to put into words an intuitive state that was beautifully free from vocal mumblings.
The real trouble was that I knew what art was but I couldn't describe it with words because I didn't think in words, only in pictures. I shed many tears that day. The only thing I could come up with was that art was communication.
For 20 years, I have been thinking about Dr. Smith's question and a few days ago I did a dastardly thing. I asked a group of about a dozen children the very same question.
Ranging in ages from 3 to 9, the children had no problem talking about art. One little girl thought it was something to eat. Most considered it decoration and the overall assumption was that it had to look like something and be beautiful.
I suppose life would be a lot easier for some of us if that was the definition of art. But I suspect art would not be very thought-provoking if we left it at that. When I prodded and dug a little further, traipsing past thoughts of favorite pets, toys and oodles of dinosaur paintings, some of the children agreed that art was more than realism and beauty, and, for Maggie Miles, it could even be ugly!
``There's different kind of things put together sometimes, said 9-year-old Maggie. ``I see these things and they have trash put together - like glued on a platform or something. They're pretty cool.''
Art doesn't have to look like something, said Maggie, ``because you can imagine what it is.''
Imagine that!
Four-year-old Marlowe Crews says art is what you study. She likes watching her brother Griff draw pictures, especially giraffes, dogs and crabs. ``Griff drew a crab by looking at a crab,'' she said. ``It almost crawled out of the plate.'' Marlowe also noticed that Griff doesn't always draw realistic things. ``Sometimes it can be just colors,'' she said.
``My brother knows how to do straw painting. It's just blobs. It's just mixed up kind of. It's beautiful.''
Fitting into a world where art is generally thought of as beautiful and decorative can be tough. In Dare County we have a few artists who specialize in social commentary art that could probably also be considered a form of conceptual art. Renee Landry put together a stack of old pillows with men's names or occupations printed on each one for the Frank Stick Art Show at the Ghost Fleet Gallery in Nags Head.
They were stacked from floor to ceiling. Some viewers were offended by the work, titled ``Smothered,'' sensing a sexual content in it. Maybe it was the lack of pillowcases?
Overall, it was probably one of the most talked about pieces in the show. And according to Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), the French artist and theorist who elevated common objects to the status of art, a negative reaction is better than no reaction.
Landry's work moved me. It is personal, different and it made me think. Where did she get all those old pillows anyway?
The quest of art and artist will always be an interesting one. It can be a lonely trail, especially when you do things out of the norm. For those artists who prefer to work in pillows rather than watercolors, you are not alone. Duchamp may be deceased, but more than 80 years ago he was probably experiencing some of the same reactions from his audiences.
I continue to define and redefine art for myself every day. As a friend recently noted, you can stand before a piece one day and feel one thing and then another day feel entirely different. That may not define art, but it certainly is the beauty of it.
If we keep asking questions and feel free to express ourselves without audience approval, maybe our children will look beyond their ``decorated'' perimeters and see the vast potential of art.
Thanks, Dr. Smith, for asking. MEMO: Mary Ellen Riddle covers Outer Banks arts for The Carolina Coast. Send
comments and questions to her at P.O. Box 10, Nags Head, N.C. 27959.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY ELLEN RIDDLE
Leilani Doi checks out the abstract artwork she created at Mount
Olivet United Methodist Church preschool.
by CNB