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Art Programs – Coaching Lesson

Hi, this is AJ, welcome to this month’s coaching lesson. Art programs, art and art programs, art…what are the benefits of art? Let’s think about that. Art. What’s the benefit of art? What’s the benefit of doing art? Why? What’s the point? I think that when it comes to art we’ve lost something and truth be told, I think that this is a general thing.

I’ve talked about this in past lessons. A general problem in our modern society, our technological society, our media society, that we’ve gone from societies globally of participation of doing and instead become consumers and passive watchers, right? We’ve gone from active doers to passive consumers.

So when you think about it, let’s say, music is a good one. What did people do for music 200 years ago when they had no recordings to listen to? Well a lot more people, not everybody, but a lot more people actually did music. How did they do it? Well, at the very least they had a lot of folk songs where people would sing, right?

You could maybe imagine in the movie sometimes, for example, they have a scene where people go to the pub, to the bar, and they all sing songs, right? And there were certain songs in each culture that like everybody knew. So I can think of one from my own culture growing up in the south of the United States. There’s a song called Dixie, “I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there were not forgotten, look away…” y’know, and anyway… People growing up in the south, everybody knew that song, everybody. Everybody could sing it. And this used to be a part of our cultures where even if someone didn’t play an instrument, they couldn’t play any instruments but they would, everybody would know these songs and get together and sing them sometimes at gatherings, maybe when they’re drunk a little bit.

So there was more participation, a lot more people actually did music even if it was just singing these little songs that everybody knew. But now we’ve become these passive consumers where when people talk about music, I like music, if someone says I like music, usually they don’t mean they do music. They’re not actually singing. They’re not actually playing an instrument like the guitar.

Most people, some, of course, but most people when they say I love music, they mean they like to listen to recorded music or maybe go to see live music. But they’re passively consuming it. They’re just listening. They’re not really participating in it. They’re not doing music.

The same with art. When most people say, oh yes, I like art, I like art. Well, what do we think? We think of someone who goes to a museum and looks at art. They’re not doing art. They’re consuming art.

They’re viewing art. It’s very passive. And I think in many ways, the art world, especially the graphic art world of, y’know, painting, drawing, sculpture, has become just…it’s become ridiculous honestly.

I think this is because most people don’t do it anymore. They don’t do it. Most people can’t draw, they don’t even try to draw or paint. So they have no appreciation of the mindset or of the technique or the skill or of a work of art. And because of that, a whole lot of garbage now is described as art. And most people that go and they see this stuff in a museum and they’re like, eh, yuck. I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. It’s ugly.

And art has kind of degenerated. And I think it’s because, again, of this shift from doing to being passive. Because, again, in the past if you look you can look at say, education, let’s say in England, 2, 300 years ago, 400 years ago, 2, 3, 400 years ago, most people learned how to sketch. They didn’t have cameras so people learned at least how to sketch which means to draw kind of quickly, kind of a basic drawing. But a lot, a lot, a lot of people did this.

Y’know, a lot of the old scientists like Charles Darwin, he could sketch animals pretty good, y’know? Not bad at all. So a lot of people had at least the basic skills of drawing. They had an appreciation for how you do it and the mindset. And therefore, when they looked at paintings by masters they really could appreciate how great they were. And they could also look and if they saw something that was not that great, they understood. Oh, that’s not that good. It’s ugly.

When you do something, you appreciate it more. You understand it more deeply. And you better appreciate the masters who are truly great at it. Y’know, I can say that in things that I do. Let’s say, again, jiu-jitsu. I’ve talked about jiu-jitsu in the other lesson this month. So before, before I did jiu-jitsu, if I watched a video of two guys fighting jiu-jitsu, let’s say some one really, really good, or two guys really good.

I didn’t really understand what was happening. It just looked like two guys rolling around on the ground so I couldn’t appreciate it. So if I watched two guys who were not very good rolling around doing jiu-jitsu and then two masters doing it, really I couldn’t tell much difference. I hadn’t done jiu-jitsu before. I didn’t know anything about it so very hard for me to appreciate the skill.

Now that I’ve done it, now I know what’s happening. I understand it from doing it. Now I watch two masters and I realize, wow, I can see what they’re doing. I can appreciate the technique so much more deeply and I understand how much work and discipline and training and skill those guys had to have to perform at such a high level. So it brings a deeper richness to my understanding of jiu-jitsu and of life.

And we can do this with art as well. And so when we’re talking about art, I believe the process of doing is far more important than the end result, far, far, far more important. I think it’s far more important. What are the benefits of doing art? Doing it, not looking at it. Not going to a museum but actually making art. Let’s just talk about maybe the most basic form of art, drawing. Of course, there’s painting and sculpture, too, but let’s just talk about drawing.

So what are the benefits of drawing? Number one is heightened awareness. This is the big one. When you draw, you have to pay attention. You have to observe carefully the thing you are drawing. If you are drawing an apple, for example, okay you have to see that apple very clearly. You’ve got to look at it, study the apple. Look at how the light is hitting the apple. Look at the exact shape of the apple, right?

And you’re trying to draw it exactly, very carefully, but you have to observe and be aware of all of the details of that apple. You really, really see that apple, that one particular apple very, very clearly. It heightens, meaning it increases, your awareness.

Now this creates a very strong connection with your subject, with the thing you are trying to draw, right? You will feel it emotionally as well, a connection to that thing. Even if it’s not alive. Even if it’s just a cup and you’re trying to draw a cup or a vase. You still, that vase in your mind and in your body almost comes alive because you suddenly see it clearly for the first time because you are really carefully looking.

Because to draw it, you must very carefully observe it and see it and all the tiny little details of its shape and its form and the light and the shadows. And if you’re using color, then the colors as well. And this is very meditative. This is a form of meditation, a form of very, very deep meditation. I know, for example, at different times when I’ve traveled, sometimes I have decided not to take pictures, no photos. I’ve only drawn, just sketched.

Nothing spectacular, like I can remember one time I sat down and I sketched a doorway at a temple in Thailand. And what’s amazing is that I can still remember that doorway very, very clearly now. It’s probably been 6, 7 years maybe since I did that. And nothing super special about that doorway. The special thing was my mindset.

Because I was drawing it, I was so connected to it. I observed it carefully, right? Because I sat there, it probably took me 30 minutes or so to draw it with just pencil, basic pencil drawing. And so it was kind of very strongly recorded in my mind as a memory. It’s a very vivid, meaning very clear and colorful memory in my mind.

On the other hand, on other trips when I’ve just taken lots of pictures, there’s just not much connection to what I’m taking a picture of, right? The camera makes everything so fast and automatic. We don’t pay attention to what we’re photographing quite as well. And as a result, a lot of that stuff, it just kind of goes in the mind and goes out, don’t remember it that clearly.

There’s not that same connection. There’s not that same awareness. The camera puts, y’know, a piece of technology, a piece of hardware between you and the subject and therefore it separates you from it whereas drawing or art, there’s nothing in between and it actually instead increases the connection and the appreciation for whatever you’re drawing.

So the next question is how do you learn or why should you learn? So I believe you should learn it just to experience the process, even if your drawings are always ugly. Even if you just draw and draw, maybe when you go and travel and you sketch and then every time you look, oh, that’s terrible. And you don’t want to show it to anybody. It’s still very, very valuable.

It’s valuable, number one, because you will have richer, deeper experience. You will appreciate and see things so much more clearly. It’s so meditative. It’s so peaceful and calming. It’s very, very powerful. For that reason alone, even if your drawings are always terrible and bad, I recommend practicing drawing and doing it.

So how can you do it? What’s a way to learn drawing? Well, in the conversation they talk about art programs and, y’know, but I think that, of course, the best way to learn to draw or to learn any kind of art is independently. You can do it by yourself. I’m just going to talk about drawing because that’s what I have a personal experience…I have some personal experience with drawing, not really with anything else.

So I learned to draw, I’m not great at drawing honestly, but I did learn to draw a bit, decently, halfdecently, right? Whereas before I couldn’t draw at all, just horrible, like stick figures. But now I could sit down and do a basic sketch and it wouldn’t be too bad. And I learned to do it from a book called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, that’s the name of the book. I highly recommend this book.

Get this book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain…Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It’s a fantastic book. Some key points about this book, number one is that this book teaches you, again, to focus on the process. It teaches you to focus on how you’re seeing. It’s not really about how…it’s not so much about the techniques you use with your hand. There’s a little bit of that in the book.

But most of it is about how you’re seeing, to see more clearly, to see more accurately, to see more deeply and to have a stronger connection with the subject, a more meditative clear mind as you are drawing or doing any kind of art. That’s what the book teaches you and it’s very powerful. And when you improve that, what’s interesting is that your drawing quality will actually improve also, the outcome, how good your drawings look, actually will get better even though you’re not focused on that so much.

The book teaches you how to slow down and observe very, very carefully. And you start realizing that when you go through the exercises in the book you start to realize that oh, wow, I really don’t see things clearly. You’ll start to realize that most of the time when you look at something you just look at it quickly and you really don’t see it. You really don’t see it very clearly. You just see the really basics and that’s all. And when you’re taking a picture, same thing.

But when you trying to draw something you’ll start to realize that when you focus your full concentration on that thing or that scene, you’ll start to realize how much you’re missing most of the time. It’s powerful. It’s very, very powerful. I highly recommend it.

And finally, when you practice this, what you can do in your daily life when you’re walking around, in your home, when you travel, sometimes, sometimes, especially when you take a trip or something, just sometimes, not every time but sometimes leave the camera at home. Turn off the cell phone. Don’t use the camera. Instead have a little sketch book and try sketching things.

You don’t have to sketch people. People can be difficult sometimes. You can sketch a cup. You can sketch a doorway like I did in Thailand. You can sketch really basic things but it will still deepen your appreciation. You will find that your travels, your vacations, even just your relaxing time at home will improve when you take a little time to sketch or to draw.

Okay, so your action plan this month. Number one, buy that book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It’s on Amazon.com or whatever. There’s many Amazons for different countries. Kobo.com also available in many countries. Just do some searches on different bookseller websites, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I highly recommend that you get that book.

Number two, start at the beginning of that book and just go through and do all of the lessons and the exercises, just work your way through the book this month gradually. It’ll take you about one month to do everything in the book if you do a little bit every day.

And number three, I’d be very, very curious to see your results, to see your final drawings at the end of the book. Because I guarantee they will get much, much, much better. You can share them with me on Gab, that’s the social media I use now to answer questions and communicate with you. You can ask me questions on Gab. It’s Gab.ai. My account on Gab is just my name, ajhoge. So if you like. You don’t have to if you feel you’re shy about it, but if you like, share your drawings with me on Gab.

Alright, I will see you next time. Bye for now.