Tuesday, January 19, 2010

I LOVE the library

The library has always been one of my favorite places to go for recovery from the chaos of my life.  There’s so much there and it’s mostly all free, how terrific is that?  I love books and have a personal library that is quite intensive on several topics but they tend to focus more on the “how to do it” genre’.  Lately I seem to have a broader interest in art all across the board.  I still don’t get the same level of excitement from studying “the old guys”, but I do appreciate their skill and in some cases enjoy knowing about they’re life styles.  I think part of that is a result of having to study art history just a few years ago to earn the college credits I had so successfully avoided  signing up for until then.  I’d way rather be in a painting or drawing class where I actually get to DO something, not just learn dates and descriptions of periods.  Isn’t a period just something you end a sentence with? 

I’m more into contemporary and Modern art.  I want to understand what motivates an artist that lives in my same century, and deals with similar day to day life experience as I do, like Georgia O’KeefeKurt Schwitters and Maxfield Parrish, for example.  20th and 21st century at least !!!!  Having said that, I borrowed 2 videos on the Impressionists and 1 on Leonardo DaVinci.  But the great thing is that I can just borrow these from the Library and save my money to purchase the ones I’ll want to watch more than once.  Like the Georgia O’Keefe one that I ordered from Amazon this morning in order to get free shipping along with my manual for QuickBooks 2010.

There’s a long list of art DVD’s out there but some of them cost a humongous $$$$ amount.  In most cases it’s way more money than I can justify spending on a DVD,  particularly if it’s something I haven’t been able to watch first.  A few years ago I had that deal with NetFlix and rented lots of their art DVD’s, most of them were pretty dull and boring, I often fell asleep watching them !!!  They were so very intellectual and professorial I could hardly stand it!!!  No wonder today’s kids avoid art history like the plague!!!  Yes they do, a lot of them were in my classes at JJC just a few years ago.

As far as libraries go, it was really great when I was actively attending classes because my experience with the college libraries was a thrill, so many more cool books and videos.  I just might have to register for a class of some type to get access again.  Maybe a life drawing class would be a win win.

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