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Ayten's invocation of art as a form of relational modeling is
significant in many ways. Robert Rosen was a fine artist, both in drawing and in
oil painting. (Since I got a digital camera for Xmas, I can
finally put some photos of my father's artistic work up on the
rosen-enterprises.com website...) He was also very well versed in art history
and music history as well as the theoretical bases for both (color theory, music
theory, etc). On top of that, he could play both piano and organ-- Bach fugues
were among his favorites to play. Art was one of the first things I discovered I
had in common with my father, along with writing, and I pursued art in college
(preferring to develop my writing on my own). I also loved art history, and only
discovered the depth of my father's knowledge on the subject when telling him
about my own discoveries, likes and dislikes, and intuitions (in my
mid-twenties).
It didn't really surprise us, by then, to discover that we had
formed a lot of the same likes and dislikes, independently of one another-- that
was a phenomenon we had gotten used to. We both disliked art like Jackson
Pollack's "bird-droppings" paintings-- abstract expressionism where there was no
thought or talent involved. Throwing paint at a canvas isn't much of a
relational model of anything-- I think that's what bothered both of us about
such "art". Abstract art is capable of being so much more! It has the
capacity to be a relational model for aspects of the mind. Thoughts, concepts,
ideas.... all can be represented visually through art. That's what interested
the two of us. So-called art where the artist wanted to "just be a witness to
what happens organically"... that's not art.
The Rochester Zoo has an elephant named Jenny C, who has been
taught to paint and her paintings are auctioned off every year as part of a big
fund-raiser for the zoo. Her paintings are better than a lot of abstract
expressionist stuff in galleries. I don't know how much she's allowed to express
herself, though. I have often thought that art might be a good way to
assess the minds of various other species, just as it is a way currently used in
early childhood development assessment to try and get some idea of what's going
inside a child's mind.
Judith
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