art art art art art art art art art art art art

art art art art art art art
art art art art art art art
art art art art art art art

That’s how M.C. Richards
(potter, poet, former Black
Mt. College student) started
off a lecture one spring
evening in the 70’s—outside
the print shop (used to be the
library) and we were seated
on folding chairs expecting
ARTIST TALK, yes?

Anyway: that’s how she started
out: repeating the word ART for
2 or 3 minutes—intending that
repetition would cleanse the
WORD all soaked in hoity-toity
snobbery & bullshit: “art” for
crying out loud as if it were a big
deal…she wanted to purify it, wash
it clean like a baby in the blood of
the lamb. .

Well, we know IT when we see ITt
(art)
but damned if we can define it. Or
even want to. A nothing word. A
shibboleth like sustainability. Stamp
of approval. Holy smokes, mirrors &
oooomygawd: (that’s US in front of
some ART.)

&&&&&&&&

Excerpt from my letter-lecture handout
in Intro to Fiction class last week.
Hoping to put IT in play.
You know: ART
Artistic expression.
Artistic appreciation.

art art art art art art art art art art art art.

Tom Showalter just now brought me
an article from the latest NYTIMES
Magazine entitled WHAT IS ART FOR?
by Lewis Hyde, which I haven’t read
yet, but he’s written 2 books I use in
my Readings in Humanities: THE GIFT
—a study of the 2 economies that Gary
Hawkins talks about (Creating and
Consuming) and THE TRICKSTER
MAKES THE WORLD: a study of
coyote, crow, hermes, mercury, jesus,
devil, con-man, clown, jester and all the
various avatars, manifestations,
embodiments of that 3^rd term (yin-yanger)
tie-breaking triadic notion that mediates,
boundary-straddles, confounds and clarifies
double binds & Gordian naughts between
“science” and ah, er, um: “the arts” – the
2 agricultures and other rocks & hard
places..

Liberal Artist Expression.
Liberal Artist Appreciation

I can see our Fine Arts & Humanities
concern over art art art art possibly
taking a turn for the good—especially
in these troubling & challenging times:
jumping a level from GEN ED, history
of Core, filling empty classes, and what
the hell is ART anyway to—to talking
about IT across the curriculum, inviting
Hamil & the Witherspoon Complex &
cultivating a cerebral/affective bru ha ha
across the curriculum--growing and
rolling our own.:

How do we define Liberal Art?
Right here. Us. Liberal Art
Expression. Liberal Art
Appreciation.

And what’s the difference?
And what’s the relationship.?

Local Foodback. Metis, Homer calls it.
Local knowing. The Liberal Artist
makes the world.