(Untitled)

[keristars]

it really frustrates me that i love art (2-d, 3-d, digital, folkart, all of it), and i really enjoy making art, especially collage, but i am completely unable to articulate what exactly i like or how i feel about certain things, and when it comes to making my own stuff, i don't know how to go from the abstract feelings in my head to something

Comments

[novanglus]

I don't know specific titles, but it sounds to me like what you want is a good textbook -- textbooks are designed to do just what you want.

Find a university course syllabus somewhere on art appreciation/analysis, see what textbook they use, and get a copy for yourself or borrow from the library. That's always a good way to start, and you can branch out from there.

[keristars]

This is where I feel stupid again, because that's exactly the thing I've suggested to other people in the past, but it never occurred to me to do the same thing. As for art appreciation/analysis, we didn't really have any of that kind of class when I was doing my undergrad, or I would have taken it (I used to browse the textbooks at the start of each semester to see if anything looked interesting, too!). I did use my electives on art history survey 1 and 2, two drawing classes, a painting class, and 2-d design, though I feel that it has only made things more frustrating for me by showing me that I really enjoy art, except that I can't seem to make my tools do what I want them to.

Definitely, though, I think I'm going to try to remember this for myself in the future, especially whenever I recommend it to someone else. Thank you :)

[ainu_laire]

Fellow artist here. I always get stats from people who say that people in the syndrome are more left brain than right brain, so it's nice to see another artist

[keristars]

I know several artist/writer/crafty types who are aspies, and I know them all from this community. :D The first one that comes to mind is unico_love (I'm probably mangling her username), who is a painter.

And, yeah, I figure "why" isn't necessary, but it does help me to know that I like Artist X's style because of this particular element of the way he draws people, and that's the bit that's really difficult for me. Or pinpointing what exactly appeals to me in a painting, so that I can try to incorporate it in something of my own. (I think I'm not very good at experimenting, also, but that might be the executive dysfunction that kisekileia suggests, and which I'd thought of a while back and forgotten about

[niyabinghi]

Well, first off, count your blessings because there's an awful lot of people out there who can spout off all sorts of wordy things about art but are incapable of having your kind of strong sensory and synaesthetic responses! It's interesting you write this, b/c I used to worry about this also, in my 20s, and felt terribly inadequate, even tho people usually responded strongly and positively to my artwork

[audrabaudra]

This. Especially the idea to be happy and pleased with yourself--you are an artist!

Also, try this: go to Scribd.com. Join up. Search on "art history." See what you find.

[keristars]

I always forget that scribd.com exists! Then someone reminds me and I get really excited about it, until I get distracted and forget again. :P

[keristars]

this is a link to a photo of my favorite of my paintings, though in an unfinished stage (the finished version has small, filled-in blue stars on the far right, maybe five or six of them, and skewed and off-center and stuff to match the ones on the left) I like it because of the simplicity of the elements, the strong colors (the orange is more vibrant and less of a pumpkin tone in reality), and the stars (I love stars).

I love painting. I've only used acrylics, but I really like the steps involved in using them. Thank you for the recommendations, I'm going to see if I can get them from the library! And the 1920s is probably my favorite decade for art - I did take a two-part art history survey course and really liked it, but it didn't help me much with articulating what it is about Art Nouveau or Art Deco (my favorite genres, but I also like early modern - the very stylized stuff - though I love a lot of others, too - I went to the Musee d'Orsay no less than 3 times when I spent two weeks in Paris, and I only went to the Louvre for one

[idiotgrrl]

I graduated from college back in 1964 and have still signed up for an art appreciation class. It is proving very instructive about what's going on and why. This particular class is held in a room with a large screen and we see slides of the art while the teacher explains what we're looking at and for. I'm getting quite a bit of benefit from it.

[kisekileia]

This sounds like an executive functioning issue--the inability to figure out the steps for doing what you want to do and implement them.

[keristars]

That's kind of what I was thinking, too, only I really wasn't at all sure, and I have so many self-doubts, you know? It's easy enough to advise other people, but difficult to advise myself!