Art Around Us

Visual art is all around us. Murals on the sides of buildings, sculptures, statues, wall hangings, paintings, photographs, billboards, magazine ads, even the clothing we wear. This is the Hop Man mural at one of the breweries we visited on vacation.

I marvel at the fountains by George Tsutakawa in Seattle and Maple Valley’s Maplewood Golf Course, the Chihuly Garden in Seattle, and the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. I often take pictures of local art to use in my art lessons. Probably one of the most neglected forms of visual art is sculpture. Understanding and being able to visualize objects in three dimensions is difficult to teach. Two-dimensional art is the most common, though one must discover how an artist creates the illusion of form, depth, and space through the use of various techniques.

In Kent, WA, one of my friends likes to fence-bomb chain-link fences to beautify the area. You will find these along the Soos Creek Trail and 196^th Street among other locations. Check out the railings at the 192^nd trail entrance; they are dripping with neon woven yarn.

The design for this particular installation reflects the shapes repeated in the electrical tower in the background. Notice the triangular shapes and different sizes. The art principle of repetition brings a clear sense of unity, consistency, and cohesiveness to this design. Repetition is also used to create rhythm. This looks difficult to do and is especially time-consuming for one person to complete. What a canvas this would make on the border of a school’s playground! A wonderful group art project for a classroom!

When I am teaching, I often include segments about art in the news, using articles clipped from local newspapers or Internet stories about stolen or missing art that has recently been recovered. When I taught about Norman Rockwell’s ‘The Dugout’ and ‘Rosie the Riveter’, there was a story about the reunion of some of his models in his most famous illustrations from the Saturday Evening Post.

When in Palm Springs, you will find art that pays homage to Marilyn Monroe everywhere.

My family enjoys vacationing in Pt Townsend and typically stays in the officers’ housing on Fort Worden State Park. In the past, the starkly furnished houses only displayed black-and-white photographs from the turn of the century when it was used as a military base. Now that they have been renovated, new artwork has appeared. We were pleasantly surprised to see large needlepoint versions of Pinkie by Thomas Lawrence and Sir Thomas Gainsborough's Blue Boy displayed side-by-side in the dining room. BTW, prints of these flank the entryway of the Cleavers' home on Leave it to Beaver.

Art helps pass the time and is a good way to entertain kids and escape electronic devices. 

Look at this watercolor masterpiece created by a 3-yr-old we babysat for.