The Art Experience: A Personal Statement

The first artist to address campus community as a M^cKay lecturer, A. LaMoyne Garside came to Church College of Hawaii in 1964, from Provo where he had taught at Brigham Young High School. He received his B.A. in 1957, from Brigham Young University, having previously graduated from Weber Junior College in 1952; he completed his M.F.A. in 1960, also at BYU; he received a Fulbright to study in Rome in 1970; and he engaged in further study, while on a sabbatical in Japan, at Kyoto City University of Fine Arts in 1970-1971. While Garside drew upon all of his training for his, the fourteenth lecture in the series, his remarks most directly reflected his experience in Japan. In addition to his Church activity, Garside gives time to several local art associations. At the time of his lecture, he was Chair of the University's Fine Arts Division and Associate Director of the prestigious Institute for Polynesian Studies. Garside and his wife Jayne, herself a faculty member at BYUH, have three children: Brad, Scott, and Kawehiamehina.

Preface

As an educator and studio artist, I want to share and review with you the process of the art experience and what it involves. I want to share with you the experience I had in Japan in solving the art problem.

In this presentation, I have five topics I want to touch upon, briefly. They are introduction and definition of terms, art and artwork, the artist and society, the creative process, and my concluding remarks will be the art problem.

Introduction

By way of introduction to this presentation, I want to define a few basic terms significant to the Arts.

The first term is "Art" and it has as many definitions as there are artists. And each definition, though personal, will contain a degree of truth. Art is "a value label, designating the highest form of human activity, man's final word, his ultimate achievement" (Eitner 2).

We generally confine this definition to the art work we see and read about in history books or see in museums. But art is more than history or public. It is personal and private. It can be a personal and private activity, and a personal and private achievement.

Another term to define, is "works of art." A work of art is, as a result of training, a translation into visible form expressions of human experience, or we could say it is the objectification of subjectivity through artistic forms (Preble 6),

Another term basic to the arts is "creativity." To "make," to "form," to "organize" are words associated with and sometimes used synonymously with creativity. The scriptures tell us that the gods took of materials to make an earth (Abr. 3: 24). It also states in the Book of Abraham that "the Gods took council among themselves and said: let us go down and form man in our image, after our likeness" (Abr. 4: 26). In Moses (2: 27), it says, "And I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him, male and female created I them."

"Created" and "image" are key words to the artist. And to some, "create" is the divine principle. Man is created in the image of God and we are the Sons and Daughters of God having inherited a creative power to be used in our own right (Fleming 1). In Mormon philosophy, our ultimate aim is to become as our Father (Snow 46).

But let us approach this power with a sense of humility and respect and as sons and daughters, and "a little lower than the angels" (Ps. 8: 5), we imaginatively create images in all forms of art, of our own ideas, ideals, and human experiences, not graven images to be worshipped, but images that ennoble man and exalt the spirit, images that edify man and glorify God (Fleming 1).

It is reasonable to say that within the context of Mormon philosophy, creativity is a natural endowment given to all men to develop and nourish. It is the "essence" of living as well as the arts and the ability to develop this power elevates one artist over another, one individual over another.

Creativity as defined is a contribution from an individual of a personal action of accomplishment resulting from constructive and productive behavior (Lowenfeld and Brittain 53). This is man's highest form of activity.

The Book of Mormon tells us "men are, that they might have joy" (2 Ne. 2: 25). Joy is part of the art experience. Joy is when an individual's potential for feeling, inner freedom, expression of himself, being able to achieve whatever he is capable of, and the potential for developing spiritually has been realized to his fullest and ultimate capacity. When he realizes this, he is in a state of Joy.

Bronowski in The Ascent of Man (1973) says, "Man ascends by discovering the fullness of his own gifts (his talents or faculties) and what he creates on the way are monuments to the stages in his understanding of nature and of self" (24)

We live in a country that is celebrating its Bicentennial. We live in a democracy that has established institutions that will allow man to develop to his fullest potential. We are members of a church that believes in the development and growth of the "whole man," physically, intellectually, creatively, and above all spiritually.

Part of that fulfillment and development concerns the arts, because art is part of man. It fulfills personal and social needs, the personal need by way of achievement and communication and the social need for celebration and commemoration. The entire range of human thought and feeling can be represented and displayed in visual form allowing it to become a form of language if not a universal language. Works of art may be questions and answers of this physical world we know and can measure, the inner world of emotion and spirit, and the universe of time and space we don't completely comprehend. In a more personal and quiet way, it represents, interprets, clarifies and intensifies those moments in life that are significant for our physical and spiritual fulfillment (Preble 6).

Whether the impressions are from the physical-material world or from the inner world of the spirit, the art experience is the transforming of personal statement into visual form, hence the title of this presentation, "The Art Experience: A Personal Statement."

Art and Art Work

Science and language have served us well, but if the sciences and verbal language could express human experiences adequately, there would be no need for music, dance or the visual arts (Dewey 74). But in all forms of expression and communication, there are imperfections and limitations, the arts are not excluded but there are many things whether public or private that are best said visually or with the sounds of music (Dewey 237-238).

When those qualities of the spirit, imagination, intuition, emotion, empathy, and intellect, are fused in a coordinated effort, those impressions which are beyond words can be objectified or expressed in visual form (Munsterberg 56).

Art, like science and religion, attempts to make the world habitable and existence bearable. As Virgil Aldrich in his book, The Philosophy of Art (1963), says, "art is a kind of anaesthetic for the will to live" (90). But keep in mind that art is more than entertainment, decoration, propaganda, or a sweetener of life.

All of us come in contact with one form of art or another every day of our lives. The clothes we wear, the car we drive, the utensils we eat with, the television sets, are just a few of the innumerable objects that someone created who had that human impulse to create.

This impulse to be creative is visible in all walks of life, teachers, doctors, artists, builders, mechanics. It is not the profession but the individual, you and I, that is creative. We all have this God-given ability in varying degrees. It is just a matter of development.

Yet, when it comes to creating art forms, we tend to think of it as being some mysterious act, which only scholars, critics, or artists can understand and define. So we leave it to others, the more adventurous, to create art forms and we expect to find these art forms on the walls of museums and art galleries (Russell 4).

Most of us, when we look at a work of art, those art forms we have relegated to museums and galleries, whether it is sculpture, or painting, expect to see something recognizable, something we can relate to outside the canvas or sculpture.

I will confine my remarks to painting. A painting that is a recognizable portrayal of something, we call "representational painting." A painting that does not have an explicit image of something can be labeled "abstract painting." A painting that has nothing that is recognizable is "nonrepresentational painting." Keep in mind that this is a generalization and that the division between these categories is very fine if not hazy and subject to debate and discussion--but in any case, all three are acceptable as aesthetic art forms. At one extreme, we have "surrealism" and at the other end of the continuum, we have "abstract expressionism." In between, we have varying degrees of representationalism and abstraction.

All paintings have subject matter, content, and form. In representational and abstract painting, the subject matter exists outside the canvas. It may be a tree, the ocean. It is the object painted. The content is the artist's interpretation of the subject matter. "What it is seen as." How it is represented on the canvas. Form is the arrangement on the canvas of the elements such as line, color, and value, that make up the content. Some may call it design, some composition, but nevertheless, it is the visual vocabulary.

Within the nonrepresentational painting, the subject matter does not exist outside the canvas except in the mind and emotions of the artist. The content and the form become the subject matter. The painting is the subject.

Most of us, when we look at a painting, look for (first) subject matter, (second) content, (third) form. This is one way of looking at a painting. Another way of looking is to reverse the order, (first) the form, (second) the content, and (third) subject matter. It is the "form," that arrangement of lines, colors, values, that will heighten or uplift emotional and spiritual awareness, no matter what the subject. The subject matter will present to the artist an idea or a problem to be solved, but it is the form that receives first priority and is the greatest concern for the artist, because the success or failure of a painting will be determined by the form. Form is the "first order" of expression and if the arrangement of the elements are such that the painting exhibits "significant form," a term coined by Clive Bell (17), our response will be that of an aesthetic experience--a heightened emotional and spiritual awareness (Aldrich 64, 83). And that may be expressed by a feeling of excitement, stimulation of the imagination, a lofty calm, peace and fulfillment--a moment of Joy.

A work of art is a composition of tensions and resolutions, balance and unbalance, rhythmic coherence, a precarious yet continuous unity. Life is a natural process of such tensions, balances, rhythms; it is these that we feel in quietness or emotion, as the pulse of our living. In a work of art they are expressed, symbolically shown, each aspect of feeling developed as one develops an idea, fitted together for clearest presentation. (Langer 8)

The artist, through his work, responds to and expresses his reactions or impressions of social, political, and environmental conditions. He communicates through his art that which is seen with the eyes and that which is not seen but felt as impressions on the spirit. He comments on society and cries out against injustice and immorality. He may be a voice of conscience as the Prophet Nathan. We are all prophets in our own realm.

The Artist and Society

Some artists see our society and day as a time of great unrest and drastic change. And we are told that the only thing we are sure of is change. Newtonian physics solidified our concept of the material as the only reality and the scientific method as the way to uncover new knowledge. The industrial revolution, and advancement in technology have taken from the individual, to some degree, his personal importance, and our present day "situational ethics" has resulted in a scientific technological concept of life, robbing the individual of his identity and humanity. We train people to do a specific activity in a production line and assign numbers to people so the they will be easier to keep track of. This we do in the name of efficiency and scientific management, thus allowing technology and specialization to erase man. "Perfection of means but confusion of aims are the mark of our time" commented Einstein (qtd. in Rodman 38). There is fear and distrust, "SALT talks" and "Detente." We witness starvation, wars and rumor of wars and cities dying in this atomic age. Pollution has made us aware that air and water are not free and "green" space is not limitless. These are realities not to be ignored but confronted, so if the artist's pronouncements on canvas are disturbing and incompatible with our senses, keep in mind the source of the subject matter he has chosen.

Now, as a reflection of the confusion of change and the uncertainties manifested in the philosophy of men, Jackson Pollock, the abstract expressionist, of the late 1940s and early 50s, was predisposed to comment on the world as he saw it. He said,

It's a different age we live in. It's an age of indeterminacy. Perhaps morals are indeterminate compared with other times. You don't call a thing or a person 'good' or 'bad' the way you could once. We know there's good and bad in everyone. This indeterminacy comes out in our painting. Perhaps it's why we're not interested in making portraits. That would be too precise a statement to lend itself to painting as we practice it. (qtd. in Rodman 83)

Other painters see our society as exercising a great amount of external organization and bureaucratic control becoming almost brutally indifferent to the individual as a human personality. Imposed business techniques and industrial models on society and education impose priorities that don't allow for the education of the whole man whereby the opportunity to develop the power to perceive, imagine, explore, create and to develop spiritually has been lessened (Linderman and Herberholz 17-18).

"Ours is a society that places training above education, that assigns jobs instead of roles" said Calvin Harlan (2). On the influence and effects of our use of mass media technology, he continues, "therefore, it can come as no surprise that the unique qualities of many individuals fail to survive adolescence" (2). Furthermore, Harlan paraphrases an observation by Herbert Read,

philosopher and art historian, "the education of both feeling and perception is neglected" (2).

The facelessness of specialization and technology is reflected in the impersonality of some paintings. But the coping with or an attempt to cope with the complexity of life is a responsibility and calling of the artist.

Within all of this pessimism, there may be seen a few rays of optimism and hope, here and there, inside and outside the realm of social and political commentary. Change will come. We are guaranteed of that, but whether it will be by philosophical or moral choices or be imposed upon us by economic, political, [or] social factors or to accommodate technology, is yet to be seen. Therein lies a challenge to all of us. More and more physical labor will be replaced by technology. More time will be available to the individual and then maybe the pleasures of the mind and the spirit will take precedence over the accumulation of material goods. We are faced with the depletion of nature resources and this will change our life style. There is growing concern about pollution and what can be done about it. Environment and "green" space and its use is now an issue in communities. There will be challenge, exciting challenges for which we can be optimistic. All of these are realities or near realities for our society and the artist is part of society.

But there are still other aspects of reality in which the artist has an interest. The encounter with this great creation, the physical world of mountain, tree, grass, ocean, people, sky, sun, and the universe of time and space, is a reality. The other reality that extends itself beyond the restricting limits of the physical world is the reality of "inward experiences" that have to do with thought, feeling, emotion, the reality of the spirit (Eitner 32). The most satisfying experiences man can have, have to do with the spirit.

Within the spiritual nature of man, the intellect, the emotions, feelings, those receptors of impressions and inspiration, whatever they are called, are so combined with the physical nature of man to receive external experiences that in turn become impressions. These impressions are concrete and become an "inner vision," a reality. When the artist expresses this inner vision, those feelings of the spirit, it is an act of private fulfillment, a state of Joy. Man is ennobled and the spirit is exalted. Man is edified.

As we look around us today, we see a great many styles within the arts. Change is constant, and now, a particular style may have a 10-year or less duration before some new or different style emerges. All the styles and techniques are present today. The techniques of the Egyptian age down to the present are visible although modified to adapt to current needs and tastes of the artist and the public. The change is part of growth, hopefully at times we may wonder.

The Creative Process

In creating a work of art, there is a series of defined steps or stages that are involved and this is called the creative process. The stages are (1) awareness, (2) focus, (3) production, (4) art product, and (5) evaluation. An artist "paints a thing in order to see it. People who don't paint, naturally, won't believe that" ( Collingwood 303).

In the awareness stage of the creative process, the first priority the artist establishes is observation, intensified observation. The artist observes a person, or a group of people, nature, whatever is the immediate experience and from this discipline receives information concerning lines, colors, values, shapes and form. He goes through the process of seeing (observing), selecting and then perceiving. He selects by focusing on one part of the object at a time to collect as much information as possible for present and future use, to be used imaginatively as an expressive response. The capacity for wonder and curiosity of life is part of observation. Observation can't give way to casual and passive perceptive lethargy (Russell 10).

When we add to intensified observation the spiritual response, to give our observations meaning and significance, we have perceptual awareness. It is intensified observation of what is visible and what is not visible but felt (Russell 10).

Some of the most simple and complex and exciting structures and three-dimensional forms are readily available for observation. The structure and texture of the bark of the palm tree, the sand at the beach, the beautiful small blossom of that bothersome and pesky hila hila weed, the structure of the bird of paradise, or the rhythmic structure of the sea shell, and the crystals and microscopic cells in the science lab, or just observing people are for our visual experience in the adventure of intensified seeing and observation.

This body of clay that encases this spirit is perceived intellectually as pure three-dimensional form. At first observation, as the artist responds to the features of the face, the eyes, the nose, the planes and surfaces that define the lips, forehead, the side of the face, he perceives them as three-dimensional forms, not as a face.

As the intellectual response gives way to the spiritual response of perceptual awareness and the spirit within the observed is acknowledged, the observing of people, young or old, any action or pose, alone or in a group, walking, running, or at rest becomes a visual adventure for the imaginative eye. An even greater adventure presents itself if you can empathize and put yourself in the place of the observed, to become the observed, to feel as you think the observed would feel, to respond as you think the observed would respond, to carry the burdens of life, to experience happiness, sadness, pain as the observed and [to] be receptive to the spirit of the observed. This is a significant human attribute of the experienced artist. The artist records these observations and impressions mentally or as sketches to be used later to ennoble this body of clay and to uplift the spirit inside. For the artist, perceptual awareness becomes a habit, a habit he does not want to overcome.

Openness to all visual experiences in this stage is very important. In the creative process, he must allow for the steady flow of visual stimuli to enter and be directed to the imagination or stored for future use.

The artist is slow to judge, and stereotyped classification of experiences must be abandoned, allowing for flexibility at the onset of problem-solving (Linderman and Herberholz 11). Perceiving the world without immediately judging it does not inhibit curiosity and imagination (Collier 223-224). As mortals, we have mortal limitations of time and space, but imagination transports us to what was, [to] what is, and to what can be. It is an adventure into the subjective where time and space have no limits; this is the inner world (Bell 82).

Every painting is an act of self-discovery as we respond to external and internal images. At first, we do not know exactly how they will appear on the canvas. With all the visual stimuli and emotional responses, the mental images become confused, maybe chaotic and shapeless.

At this point, the artist may stop and do some other activity. He will put his work aside and take a walk, go for a swim, relax if possible, but just get away from it. And maybe it will come forward. Allow the subconscious to work on it while you sleep . . . and maybe, Eureka!!--that moment of insight, of inspiration--a possible solution presents itself (McKim 2).

Picasso made this statement concerning his approach to the art problem:

For me, creation first starts by contemplation. . . . I need long, idle hours of meditation. It is then that I work most. I look at flies, at flowers, at leaves, and trees around me. I let my mind drift at ease, just like a boat in the current. Sooner or later, it is caught by something. It gets precise. It takes shape. . . my next painting motif is decided. (qtd. in McKim 38)

At this stage, after gathering in all the information and through divergent thinking considering all the possibilities, we begin to converge, to narrow down the possibilities, to focus on a possible solution, and to put something down on paper. The resulting thumbnail sketch allows us to observe the thought processes of this stage as we use line, color, shape and form to visually take the world apart and put it together again (Bronowski 332).

At this point, the artist may push aside what he feels is superficial and obstructive. He may delve beneath the common routine appearance of things to present a new meaning or idea. As this process proceeds, he may have to return to his source for further observation and self-identification. Being there is part of it.

In the focus stage, some call it the cognitive stage, the artist selects, simplifies and clarifies visually his impressions. We move from thumbnail sketches to larger and more detailed sketches to make the mental images concrete.

After taking in this overwhelming wealth of visual information and organizing it in visual form, the artist with his brush sets in motion the third phase of the creative process, the productive stage.

With line, color, value, textures, intensities, he uses paint, and with this visual vocabulary he interprets the impressions of the spirit to establish the content of the painting. The internal struggle continues. A process of working, evaluating, changing, altering, questioning, and experimenting takes place to reflect the artist's insight, integrity and taste. The content is completed. The form is established.

Reality of the mental image is now a visual reality. Now, in this, the "art product" stage, the subjective has been objectified visually.

Once the art work is finished, the reception the artist gets from the public in the evaluation stage is not a matter of complete indifference to him. We do not have established standards for judging and evaluating a work of art. It is a personal matter and what we like today may not be what we like tomorrow. It is not because we are fickle but it is because of our growth, maturity, education, our changing social and moral values, our spirituality. If a painting contributes to our experience, fulfills a need or has some value to us spiritually, then it becomes an acceptable work of art to us personally. But keep in mind, generally, most art will communicate whatever we are prepared and capable of receiving.

The artist hesitates to present his subjective thoughts and impressions to be trampled on or rebuffed by his public. Not that it deflates the ego as much as it reflects upon his judgment as to the soundness of his work. But his reception, whether good or indifferent, by the public, must not be the determining factor in deciding what and how he will paint. He wants freedom to allow his inner convictions to dictate what and how he will paint. Whether he is accepted by the public or not, is secondary.

For the artist, his own response to his complete work may be one of peace and contentment or uncertainty, or one of complete disgust and failure. To put it aside and start again is part of the art experience.

The Problem

Part of the art experience is establishing an art problem and then solving it. In Japan, the visual images that manifested themselves in the cities, countryside, the art, its people, gardens, were overwhelming, in the beginning, for this "gaijin" in a foreign land. This was a different world than the one I had known. The traditional architecture was different, as was the traditional music, art, and dance. The language was different and customs different. I can appreciate and empathize with those who suffer cultural shock.

People did things differently. It was a place where you take a bath outside the tub, the ofuro, and then, when finished, you entered into the water for rest, relaxation and contemplation of good thoughts, a custom I could easily get used to.

We lived in a small apartment in a neighborhood of craftsmen and small business. The street was narrow and sometimes noisy with the laughter and shouts of the children at play and as they went to school. Our boys attended Japanese schools and Sister Garside was doing research and writing while I was at Kyoto City University of Fine Arts.

When I was not at the university, I was walking in the hills surrounding Kyoto, or visiting places of historical significance, the imperial households, the temples, museums, castles, and the quiet gardens and always with camera and sketchbook in hand. On the way home from the university, I would visit art galleries, small art shops and ceramic studios. I had the opportunity to meet Japanese artists and art instructors. After having been observed working in the studio, an occasion presented itself to have me lecture to the art students.

The experiences were wide and varied. For example, being on the subway just at the end of the working day is unforgettable, as well as the hospitality of the neighborhood families by inviting us to their homes or inviting us to participate with them in special celebrations. The landlord, a grandfather, invited us to a New Year's morning breakfast with his family and the grandmother sewed by hand special New Year's Day kimonos for our boys. Attending school events in which our boys participated, being involved with the Church members was meaningful and became part of the art experience.

The people have learned to live in a crowd but they still desire the quiet privacy of their homes. As you walk down the streets of Tokyo, Osaka, or Kyoto in a world of people, cars, buses, and trains, a world of noise, you can turn at the corner and step through a gate and enter the quiet world of a Japanese garden. It is a land of many contrasts.

Having these experiences and being bombarded by visual stimuli and with the na·vet* of a foreigner, the problem confronted me as to what and how to give visual expression to the things I have seen. How do I communicate my subjective impressions? The problem is open ended with many possible solutions. At this point, I attempt to purge my mind, so to speak, of preconceived solutions that I had used with other subject matter. A process of divergent thinking began. Many possibilities were considered.

I decided it was going to be an expressive form that I had never investigated before. I would interpret the subject abstractly. Circles, squares, rectangles and modifications of these geometric forms were to be used. I wanted to work on a genuinely creative level, by exploring imaginatively with these shapes, instead of working in a descriptive manner of reproducing representationally the subject matter. Representationalism is generally my approach to landscape painting, although I have occasionally ventured into the realm of abstraction and nonrepresentationalism.

At the University, I presented my problem and it was this: "Reproduce the complexity of three-dimensional form to a two- dimensional shape." There are problems unique to this approach. How do you express symbolically the people, the architecture, the seasons, and the Japanese garden using circles, rectangles, triangles, and modifications of these geometric forms?

The subject matter was to be Kyoto. The visual data had been gathered and stored and the mental images began forming, wanting to come forth. A period of time was needed, a "quiet time," to work with these mental images, to be selective in making right choices and combinations. The problem was to develop the ideas or mental images and then try to fulfil their realization visually.

Brancusi stated that "simplicity is not an end in art, but one arrives at simplicity in spite of oneself, in approaching the real sense of things" (qtd. in Rodman 124).

I did not set out to be a sensationalist, to break down conventions and turn away from accepted methods, values or processes to gain attention using shocking subject matter and techniques. Nor did I set out to be an experimentalist, seeking methods and new combinations of material. My approach was to represent the concreteness of a subjective reality visually by reducing everything to flat, two-dimensional shapes, geometric shapes. The shapes represented the form seen visually as the subject matter. The colors were to communicate and define the subject by representing the colors of water, moss, grass, time of year, time of day, royalty, etc.

Now, after gathering the data as a result of personal experience, observation, and feeling, "perceptual awareness," and working through this process of divergent thought, possible solutions present themselves in the form of small drawings we call thumbnail sketches. You develop as many sketches as possible. The fluency and flexibility of ideas at this stage is very important. We unhesitatingly translate the mental images into visual form knowing that not all sketches will be acceptable and many will be discarded but at this state, quantity, and not quality, is what counts (Feldman 207).

These possible visual solutions will in turn suggest other solutions. Working on these sketches there is an interacting of seeing, imagining and drawing that takes place to visualize the invisible. We probe and explore the elusive imaginary of the mental image. The only limitation is the interest and imagination of the artist (Dewey 189).

The next step was focusing this expanding thinking into convergent action. Many sketches were discarded and others evaluated until a series of sketches presented themselves as possible solutions for a series of painting.

At this point, with sketch on hand, I confront the canvas that establishes the physical boundaries that I work on, my spatial frame of reference. It is simply a surface with four edges.

Sometimes when I am painting the journey is non-eventful and other times the struggle seems endless and the fun and enjoyment seem a long time coming. It can be just plain hard work. There is a discipline involved, a commitment to keep going on this journey until the inner impressions are expressed visually on this canvas. Hopefully the organized elements have a satisfactory form, a unity. But keep in mind that the act of discovery and what happens along the way on this journey can be just as exciting as the contemplation of the final work.

All during the painting, evaluation is taking place. Looking at the painting titled Katsura, An Imperial Household, I ask myself, are the colors and shapes right? Does it solve the problem? The green circle represents the green of grass and foliage. The blue circle represents the pond of water. The half circles represent the moss in the gardens, the shape above represents the bridge and the orange represents the late autumn afternoon. The gold represents the imperial household and the immortality it traditionally implied. The white of the canvas represents space, the universe.

Does the form of the painting communicate the suggestive calm of unity, a feeling of timelessness, a feeling of order?

Is there still enough recognition in the shapes to have it "read" properly? Is the feeling right? In this evaluation process, your eye observes, the mind perceives and appraises, the emotions evaluate (Collier 171).

At this point, if the resulting artwork is a serious and thoughtful pronouncement, the artist's concept of what the artist is or should be, his concept of art, and the underlying philosophy should be evident. Does it fit within the context of Mormon philosophy (if he is a Mormon) by being prophetic or edifying and uplifting spiritually, thus strengthening the Kingdom of God?

In a sense, a painting becomes an artist's autobiography.

In the case of Katsura and the other paintings of this series, they were not prophetic in the sense that they were a voice of conscience, for I did not concern myself with the social, political, or moral issues. The content of the paintings is to appeal to the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual nature of Man as opposed to the physical and common nature of man.

To decide when to stop painting, to know when it is complete is not easy. But that moment arrives and there on the easel is the canvas with some paint placed on it and hopefully it was put on correctly. You stand back and look. The subjective is visually concrete, the invisible, visible.

I look at the painting and I am not sure. It is unfamiliar to me although I was its creator. It is my creation. I place it on a wall to look at or I put it away in a corner. Over a period of time, hours, days or months and whether it is on the wall or in a corner I take another look, a look with a fresh eye. . . and maybe, maybe, I can say to myself, that the experience in Japan, that the art experience in my studio at the University was my personal statement, that that painting at that moment and for only that moment was my final statement, my moment of fulfillment, my moment of "Joy."

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Other Works Consulted

Battcock, Gregory, ed. New Ideas in Art Education. New York: Dutton, 1973.

Cross, Neal Miller, Leslie Dee Lindau, and Robert Carson Lamm. The Search for Personal Freedom: A Text for a Unified Course in the Humanities. 2 vols. 3rd Ed. Dubuque, IA: W. C. Brown, 1968.

Eisner, Elliot and David W. Ecker. Readings in Art Education. Waltham: MA: Blaisdell Publishing, 1966.

Neumann, Erich. Art and the Creative Consciousness. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957.

Uhlin, Donald M. Art for Exceptional Children. Dubuque, IA: W. C. Brown, 1972.

Wold, Milo A. An Introduction to Music and Art in the Western World. Dubuque, IA: W. C. Brown, 1958.