Friday, February 04, 2005

Art and the Right side of the Brain

Continuing on from the last posting I would like to discuss the subject of art and the use of the intuitive right brained thinking.
Betty Edwards, author of "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" presents her method of learning to draw realistically, whilst enhancing ones creative powers.
The book published in 1979 refers to "when I started teaching, I tried to communicate my way of thinking about drawing to my students. It didn't work very well, and, to my distress, out of a class of thirty or so students only a few learned to draw," For the next ten years she investigated this problem of why the skill of drawing was achieved by only a few.
The book therefore, presents a sequence of drawings and exercises designed to guide the reader to "develop a new way of seeing by tapping the special functions of the right hemisphere......."
She was able to develop the book and her beliefs from firstly acknowledging that drawing required a different and special way of seeing.
" I can still remember saying to myself, even as a young child, that, if I wanted to draw something, I had to do "that". I never defined "that" but I was aware of having to gaze at whatever I wanted to draw for a time until "that" occured. Then I could draw with a fairly high degree for a child."
It became obvious to Betty that "that" was the ability to use "right brained" thinking.
Of course, for all those "right" brained thinkers out there who have studied the arts, it may be that at some point you have thought that your gifts are special. Of course they are, but they are a product of "right brained" thinking and approach.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a musician I was extremely intrigued to notice your article . Although I have played a number of instruments for some considerable time, I have never questioned which side of my brian that I was using. I can however confirm, that performance requires far more than just knowing your "piece" and every once in a while, (if your lucky) you do feel that it's not you performing, but that something unearthly has entered your very being. Maybe this is the "right" side of the brain taking over?

Anonymous said...

Extremely interesting to read this article!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Elizabet said...

Dear Anonymous,
Thanks for the posting.
As someone who has studied music I totally agree with your comments.
You reach a point in performance that allows "something" else to take over your playing.
I've often thought that all the great composers actually "tune into" this "something" which results in their compositions having a divine influence!
Is it that the right side of the brain is connected to a divine influence that lays outside of the human brain or do we all posess that extreme creativity but are unaware of how to use it?

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