 Summer 1982...
Cultural History: "The Earth"
Spring 1982: The
Large Watercolors
Summer 1982: The Cultural
History of the Earth
The Cultural History of
Us
Fall 1982: The Time of Illness
In the
summer of 1982,
I taught a graduate seminar in cultural history at the
California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of Arts).
The course description was, "Culture is the lens through which people experience
reality. One-third to one-half of the class time will be used in the
study of cultures other than ours in order to discover how they set that
lens, and what they saw. The other half of class time will be used
in the study of your individual cultural settings. If you understand
how your lens was set, you may be able to re-set it if you wish."
The goal of the first lecture was first to establish the
concept of "culture" as "the way of life of a given
organism or class of organisms," and so to extend the concept of
culture beyond anthropology into all the worlds of living things... even
to the rocks and stars. We met around a large table in a seminar room. I made a series of paintings to place like centerpieces on the table,
and brought things--shells, flowers, rocks, grass, etc.--to place on the
paintings. We met every day and every day, I brought another painting.
During the first week or so of meetings, I concentrated
on a "Cultural History of the Earth." Those images are below.
As the course continued, however, I went on to a "Cultural History of Us,"
that is, mankind.
Click here for "Us."
Below are the paintings. One painting of the
group,
"Scythe" on the subject of the cutting of the grass, was not used in
the seminar (it would have followed #C below). Sometimes, art tells
us things we don't want to know. Scythe was that kind of painting.
It turned out not to be for a cultural history of the earth but for the
story of my life as that would unfold in the months immediately following
the seminar.
(Note: Unless otherwise noted, all paintings are watercolor with ink and
with occasional acrylic on paper, 40 x 40 inches.)
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The Cultural History of the Earth, #A
In the Sea I.
May 23a, 1982 |
The Cultural History of the Earth, #B
In the Sea II.
May 23b, 1982 |
The Cultural History of the Earth, #C
In the grass.
May 30 (revised July 29), 1982.
|
 The Cultural History of the Earth, #D
The life of flowers, afternoon.
June 1 (revised July
30), 1982. |
The Cultural History of the Earth, #E
The Life of Flowers, Twilight.
July 29, 1982
|
The Cultural History of the Earth, #F
The Life of Flowers, Dusk.
June 26a, 1982 |
The Cultural History of the Earth
Seed Pod
June 26, 1982
|
The Cultural History of the Earth
California Poppies.
June 26, 1982 |
The Cultural History of the Earth, #G
Fruit.
August 1, 1982
Click here for
The Cultural History of Humanity ("Us"), which is
Part II of The Cultural History of the Earth
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