DISCUSSION #2

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DISCUSSION #2
NATURAL FACILITIES
Fortunately, all things being equal (exceptions noted), most of us come equipped with all the natural facilities needed for drawing. All things considered then, the average person can be taught to draw. How well, is relative to inclination, desire, determination and practice.
Susan Holden,
Instructor,
The Art Institute of Dallas

LEFT & RIGHT BRAIN THINKING
We learn in our high-school biology classes that the brain is divided into two basic hemispheres, the left and the right hemisphere. The left hemisphere of the brain is primarily concerned with linear language based thinking. The right hemisphere of the brain is essentially devoted to visual and spatial thinking…art awareness.

"THE DUAL BRAIN"

The left and the right hemisphere of the brain are joined by a large cable of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum.

ILLUSTRATION OF BRAIN FROM VESALIUS FABRICA
(WITH CUT-AWAY TO SHOW THE CORPUS CALLOSUM)

These nerve fiberstransmit information back and forth between the two hemispheres. These two hemispheres then, are obviously designed to work together. Effectively accomplishing any given task, whatever the profession, requires the collaboration of both hemispheres.

Melba Benson, Phd., at the University of Texas in Arlington, Texas, is surveying and testing people in a variety of professions. She is finding that, no matter what the job function, there appears to be a relatively consistent balance between right and left mode reliance. This includes the "creative" professions, i.e., designers, graphic artists, fine artists, architects, animators, illustrators, etc. However (as one might imagine), the degree and the quality of the right hemisphere’s contribution is decidedly more critical in "creative" professions than in "non-creative" professions. The "creative" professional’s right sphere must be more highly developed...more highly "sensitized".

THE EYES HAVE IT

"WOMAN WEARING EARRINGS" by JAN VERMEER

We all have eyes with which to see (exceptions noted). Exactly how we see and what sight is, has long been a subject of speculation and mystery throughout the history of man. Strange, exotic and magical things have been attributed to the eyes and the power of vision, from the ancient concept of the "Evil Eye", to the eyes being "the windows of the soul".

During the Middle Ages the popular belief was, that sight was some how the result of "visual rays" mysteriously emanating from the eyes.

MEDUSA by CARRAVAGIO

NOTE: Greek mythology contains a story about a woman called Medusa, who was half snake, half woman. It was said she could turn a man to stone with one glance from her "evil eyes".

This "visual ray" theory wasn’t new. It was first formally stated by the Greek philosopher, Empedocles and a generation later modified by Plato.

It was none other than the Renaissance Man himself, Leonardo Da Vinci , who finally set us on the right visual track. His empirical observations and consequent conclusions diametrically opposed the Platonian theory of "visual rays". Leonardo proclaimed that light entered the eye from the outside environment.

He further deduced, that the eye operated like a miniature camera obscura. Although Mr. Vinci made many mistakes in his studies of the eye and its optics, these particular insights ultimately proved to be essentially correct.

"SELF PORTRAIT" by LEONARDO DA VINCI

Subsequent discoveries by other scholars, scientist, writers, philosophers, mathematicians and astronomers who followed Leonardo; i.e., Johannes Kepler , Issac Newton , Christiaan Huygens , Thomas Young and Herman von Helmholtz (to name a few), laid the scientific foundation for our present understanding of how we see.

"PORTRAIT OF A RENAISSANCE MAN"
by HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER