Art lessons - learn about relationships chaos and disorder in oil painting
I view it like this:
Let us imagine our life as a room and the room has a partition. On one side of the partition is a continually
moving, changing world of disorder and chaos. It is populated by all the creatures of the imagination - and
more than a few not invited. It is a world of the surreal, of dreams and nightmares, of anti-logic and
senselessness. On the other side of our partition we have order, logic and regular forms. The world of the
pyramids, spheres and cubes - the world of habit, pattern and order.Some people are not comfortable until the partition is forced almost completely to one end of the room (90%
order 10% chaos) while others can live in a 50/50 situation. Some will rejoice in the high chaos while others
believe it is a factor of age, gender, right and left brain, or potty-training. Some even go so far as to refer to it
as the Jeckle and Hyde, Don Quixote or madness syndrome.I believe we must live with both sides of our existence and recognize the importance of each. We need chaos
to think laterally, to be inventive, to associate disparate ideas and concepts. That is the life blood of the
creative idea. This is not to underestimate the value of pattern, order and habit. They are the very tools that
allow meaning to be drawn from disorder - the foundation blocks of moral and civilized thought and the
flame that draws the fluttering moth.You will note how, up till now, my lessons have dwelt in the rules and order side of the room in an attempt
to understand the chaos all about us. For some this may have moved the partition a little to the side of order.
Never mind! Just think of what you have learnt so far as your small toolbox with which you can use to
disassemble, reassemble and to analyse whatever your imagination demands. And remember, chaos need not
be feared, used properly it can be used to pick the problem lock.Experiments in color, design, form and texture are the basis of most of the art movements in the last 150
years. Whether they were abstract expressionism, impressionism, surrealism or post-modernism they are all
attempts at dissembling and re-assembling, of moving into chaos to hopefully discover some new meaning.
We should all similarly experiment especially when we find order stifling creativity ... or the present art
administration becoming institutionalized and self-absorbed.A study of fractals is useful when allowing the mind passage between order and chaos.GO TO ... practical painting - paint in
oils
......or back to main lesson listhttp://www.geocities.com/~jlhagan/lessons/chaos.htm (2 of 3)1/13/2004 3:51:56 AM