James W. Davis

Symmetrical and Sequential Images

In the paintings, drawings and sculptures I have recently made, I have used both a deliberate and an unplanned selection of images fused with form and color. My concern for a fusion of dichotomies has also extended to multiples of graphic images and pure geometrical of simplified organic colorshapes. I have found two methods of transferring printed images suitable for my purposes. The polymer method which involves: (1) selection of appropriate images from magazine advertisements or illustrations (must be clay base paper); (2) brushing three layers of polymer medium (matte finish) directly on the image to be transferred to canvas or paper, allowing each coat to dry; (3) applying one final film of medium and pressing the cut-out image face down on the painting or drawing surface; (4) allowing the

Unified Drawing through the Use of Hybrid Pictorial Elements and Grids

The author presents a concept of unity in drawn compositions involving combinations (hybrids) of disparate or analogous pictorial elements. He discusses a series of hybrid types that concern him particularly. Reference is made to particular types of imagery and their effects, such as the feelings of direction, movement and expansion. The effects of repetition and the use of grids are discussed. He points out that grids can be employed to emphasize imagery and to give the feeling of the passage of time. In the concluding section, the author outlines the use of grid structures in Western art, beginning with functional purposes from the time of Ancient Egypt to the Renaissance, and their aesthetic application up to the present. L’auteur développe une conception de l’unité dans les compositions qui comportent des combinaisons (hybrides) d’éléments picturaux soit différents soit semblables. Il présente plusieurs genres hybrides qui le concernent particulièrement. Il se réfère à certains types de compositions d’images et à leurs effets, tels que les impressions de direction, de mouvement et d’expansion. Il rend compie des effets de la répétition d’éléments et de l’usage des quadrillages. Il souligne le fait que les quadrillages peuvent être employés pour faire ressortir l’image et pour donner le sentiment du temps qui passe. Dans la dernière partie, l’auteur rappelle l’usage qui a été fait des quadrillages dans l’art occidental, depuis leur emploi fonctionnel de l’Antiquité Egyptienne à la Renaissance, pour en arriver à leur application esthétique jusqu’à aujourd’hui.

Introduction to the Visual Arts

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Paintings Displaying a Paradoxical Interplay between the form of an Object, its Background and its Symbolism

The author discusses paradoxical relationships in his paintings, including the interplay between flat patterns and carefully modulated depicted volumes, as well as between compositional structure and symbolic content. He describes analogies he finds between these relationships and certain qualities of music. In the final section he describes his methods of spray painting, involving the use of an airbrush, watercolors and Procion dyes. Illustrations of his works are presented.

Evaluation of the Professional Activity of Studio Art Teachers

This account is the essence of a report prepared by the studio art staff in the 1970-71 visual arts program at the Western Illinois University at Macomb, Illinois, U.S.A. The report was submitted to the College of Fine Arts as part of an over-all survey for ultimate use by the North Central Association (accreditation) Board. The professional achievements and abilities of an artist/teacher can become apparent principally from appraisals of his art work, his writings and exhibitions, his education, knowledge and experience, and his teaching. The report includes discussions of these major areas and several minor ones.

Knowing and Being: Essays by Michael Polanyi ed. by Marjorie Grene (review)

person’s behavior and circumstances provide reasons for one to realize his own condition. C . H. Whiteley discusses the view that mental concepts, such as thinking, perceiving, feeling pain, are essentially behavioural. H. H. Price discusses the phenomena of intelligible sounds emitted by others that may provide information about the world as it exists through other minds. The question of perceptual experience in the validation of the immediate world demands a philosophical basis. This topic forms the basis for the concluding section of essays in the book. A. J. Ayer states that when a person perceives something he never directly perceives a physical object, but sense data pertaining to it. Ayers further feels that every statement about a physical object is logically reducible to a statement or set of statements about actual or possible sense data. R. J. Hirst discusses the representatii7e theory of perception and confronts questions that are elicited by it , particularly the causal relation between physical objects and sense data. C . H. Whiteley claims that, while his perceptual experience alone is not a good reason for his believing in the existence of physical objects, perceptual experience along with certain transcendental clues makes the existence of objects certain.

Visual Dialogue through 'Conversational' Drawings

It is the contention of the author that there are numerous limitations imposed by convention on verbal conversation that could be avoided if the participants were as concerned with contributions other than their own. Joint drawings are approached as a vehicle of dialogue and considered as a contribution to human understanding. The ideas in the article resulted from a series of drawings done jointly by the author and his wife. As a process, ‘conversational’ drawings represent an avenue for freeing the individual from the concept of ‘inner necessity’ so prevalent in the art of our century. The author also considers some of the assumptions upon which rest the idea of the supremacy of the ‘art object’. The drawings tend to involve organic imagery and form relationships, and do not give an illusion of three dimensions. The ‘conversational’ aspects within the drawings are described as an ‘internal’ type of space, which is not content oriented and which reflects the tracing of visual paths mutually experienced by the participants. De l’avis de l’auteur, les convenances imposent de nombreuses limitations à la conversation verbale, limitations qui pourraient être évitées si chaque participant apportait autant d’intérêt à la contribution des autres qu’à la sienne propre. Des dessins faits en commun peuvent être compris comme étant porteurs de dialogue, et contribuent donc à la compréhension réciproque des êtres humains. Les idées directrices de cet article résultent d’une série de dessins réalisés conjointement par l’auteur et par son épouse. En tant que processus, les ‘dessins conversationnels’ sont un moyen de libérer l’individu du concept de ‘nécessité interne’ qui prévaut dans l’art du vingtième siècle. L’auteur discute également certaines des théories sur lesquelles repose I’idée d’une suprématie de l’objet d’art. Ces dessins tendent à inclure une imagerie organique, établissent des relations et ne donnent pas l’illusion de dessins à trois dimensions. L’auteur décrit les aspects ‘conversationnels’ des dessins comme un type d’espace ‘interne’ dont le sujet n’est pas l’élément principal, et qui reflète, en les esquissant, les expériences visuelles par lesquelles passent les participants.