[FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…

[curtisdeltablues]

This is very cool Bob, thanks for posting this.  I spent some time this morning 
digging in, and it even discusses the lack of artistic education for young 
people!  Some things never change.




--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bob Price  wrote:

 This link will take you to the book: 
 
 The Grammar of Painting and Engraving 
 
 -Written in the 19th century by Charles Blanc, 
 
 
 whose theories  (particularly on color) were studied closely by Van Gogh, 
 Gaugin and Seurat:
 
 http://archive.org/stream/grammarofpaintin00blaniala#page/n0/mode/2up
 
 
 
 
 From: seventhray27 
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 4:16:57 PM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…
 
 
 
 Very nice.  Paid off for you.
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson wrote:
 
  Excellent post, Curtis - I grew up an admirer of comics - ie, the art, and 
  wanted to draw - couldn't even draw a stick figure hardly - discovered 
  Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, bought it, worked with it - about 3 
  or 4 months later the enclosed attachment came forth - it was the last 
  thing I drew back in 1996.
  
  For whatever its worth, when I would spend an hour or so drawing according 
  to the techniques she set forth, I would always go into that silent mind 
  place she talks about (I forget her name for it) when I would come out of 
  the drawing session and went back to verbal left brain functioning I would 
  experience GC and UC big time for a couple hours at least - the more often 
  I drew the more intense and obvious the GC/UC experiences became - dunno 
  why I quit.
  
  
  The light was not great when I snapped the pic of my drawing and yep I was 
  a big Star Trek fan
  
  
  
  
  From: curtisdeltablues 
  To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 2:40 PM
  Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…
  
  
    
  It makes me wonder how much of education is just giving kids with a natural 
  inclination a track to run on rather than educating everyone up to a 
  certain level of competence in everything. What is interesting to me is how 
  persistent these self limiting ideas about ourselves are.
  
  Some of it may have to do with our cultural focus on people who are amazing 
  at certain things. It makes it all seem far from our reach. We need more 
  exposure to the road from sucking at things maybe. A focus on the process 
  rather than the outcome. But letting a kid go through the whole educational 
  system without ever giving him or her a chance with some decent instruction 
  seems like a set up to me now. I had no idea what I didn't know but needed 
  to in order to draw.
  
  I have another book I am going into after this one that is really inspiring 
  artistically that made me think of your life in Europe. Lessons in 
  Classical Drawing:Essential Techniques from Inside the Atelier by Juliette 
  Aristides (Great artist name, huh?!) It goes more deeply into the kind of 
  perceptions necessary to appreciate and create fine art, but she is still 
  geared to beginners. She uses many classic examples and it is inspiring me 
  in a more ethereal way. Check out this intro video for her system:
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tYbd9DnuyA
  
  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb wrote:
  
   Excellent rap. I, too, missed the essential parts of
   education that can teach one how to draw, or that one
   can. The fact that I can use words to create art (or
   as close to it as I want to get) is directly due to
   a few teachers who conveyed their sense of word-magic
   to me, and taught me how to use them. I agree with you
   that a large part (up to 80%, the remaining 20% being
   what we call talent) in almost any artform reflects
   what people were taught, not what they are. 
   
   --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues wrote:
   
I know, a little Man Bites Dog headline, huh? But since you are here 
anyway…

I was lying to some little kids again. I mean not lying, lying but 
tossing some bullshit that all of a sudden I began to smell. I was in a 
Title One school (poorest kids in their county) teaching them to write 
a blues song to help them understand the difference between character 
traits and feelings, which for a first grader is at the top of their 
cognitive limits. (Feelings change in the story, but character traits 
persist to define how a character will behave in the story. Hopefully 
character traits can also change through education, or we are all kinda 
screwed, but you see the simple difference right?) 

I was drawing a picture web of ideas using characters from their story 
about a fox and a mouse and was drawing a really, really shitty fox. I 
mean worse than cave man on cave wall shitty

[FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…

[curtisdeltablues]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn  wrote:

 I think I will give this a try...I don't have that particular natural 
 affinity either, but it would be an excellent exercise for my brain in 
 exploring its capacity for communicating different perspectives, if only to 
 myself. 

Exactly, it is a neuronal challenge that makes us younger inside. 



 We haven't all internalized great pitch, however; I think that is skill is 
inherent to how the brain HEARS and differs between people.  I had a good 
friend in band, years ago, who always played flat...she couldn't hear the note. 
We went to go see a Peter, Paul, and Mary concert and she sang every tune with 
them, out of key.  Drove me crazy! Ha. 


Yes you have a point.  I am not sure if some people are the exception or if she 
was just not being directed to pay attention to the right thing.  But I still 
maintain that poor student performance comes back to the teacher.  And of 
course there are exceptions to every rule.  But for most of us we have 
everything we need to play music or draw.  One great line from one of my books 
is that if you have the ability to notice that a picture in hanging crookedly 
on the wall, you have what you need to draw.  As I continue to refine my 
pictures, adjusting a little here and there I really get what they mean. The 
process is simple, but you have to isolate what to pay attention to for it to 
be relevant.  That is where the instructional techniques come in. 

I have taken a photo of Son House and put him in a plastic sleeve that I drew 1 
inch squares on.  Then I made a light pencil line grid on my drawing paper.  
This guide is helping me SEE the simple shapes I need to focus on to draw this 
picture so much better.  It gives me a reference frame to compare the simple 
shapes in each square to.

One of my goals is to fill my walls with my sketches of the bluesmen and women. 
 It is a great modest, yet challenging level to work toward.  Everything I draw 
now has a slight hinkiness to it.  But as I learn to settle down and take time 
to compare what I have drawn with what is in front of me and adjust it, I can 
see that it is possible, if just beyond my reach yet.

A perfect kick my brain's ass challenge for this decade of my life!



 
 
 
 
  From: curtisdeltablues 
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 11:27 AM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…
  
 
   
 Thanks for responding.  The great thing the Right Side of the Brain book 
 does is apply techniques to help us see things differently.  For example she 
 uses a small pane of glass (8X10 photo glass works great) with cross lines 
 drawn in to help your vision translate 3D images into 2 dimensions on the 
 plane of the screen.  I guess some people have a natural affinity for this 
 but I sure don't.
 
 I'll bet you have a much more developed artistic eye than you are giving 
 yourself credit for if you love and notice art.  I like to tell people who 
 are dubious about my you can play guitar spiel that if I am off one half 
 step on a note they will notice because we have all internalized great pitch 
 from listening to music.  So the trick is to translate that into our bodies, 
 more athletic than artistic.
 
 For drawing it seems to be a little trickier because some of our distorted 
 perceptions are actually important survival mechanisms.  So to SEE 
 perspective clearly enough we may need some counter-intuitive help.  Betty's 
 book is excellent at this.
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn  wrote:
 
  Interesting story.  I am not a visual artist, and in fact, have issues 
  with spatial translation.  I cannot draw at all, but have, like you, 
  attempted to follow the lines or learn the lines of simple things.  In 
  looking at a tree, for example, I can follow the lines, but often the 
  dimensions are off when it translates to paper.  I can bring up a 
  visual of a fox, but cannot translate the image on paper.  I see this 
  as a brain issue; I cannot SEE to translating image on paper.  I could 
  never be an architect, but once the drawing is visualized for me, I can 
  describe it in space.  I love art however; it communicates so much in 
  ways that words do not.  One of my children has a more natural talent 
  of seeing visually; the other is like me and is reduced to elementary 
  drawings replete with stick figures.  My last art class was in 9th 
  grade - I found that, for me, I am better at geometric shapes, abstract 
  translations at best.  
  
  
  
  
   From: curtisdeltablues 
  To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 10:21 AM
  Subject: [FairfieldLife] When I stopped believing my own lie…
   
  
    
  I know, a little Man Bites Dog headline, huh?  But since you are here 
  anyway…
  
  I was lying to some

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…

[Emily Reyn]

Ha.  Well, I do want to be younger - re: the outside look though, honestly.  I 
think I'm pretty young still on the inside - maybe this exercise will help me 
grow up!  Son Houselove this.  Have a good one, gotta go...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA8-ZOuKetU





 From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@yahoo.com
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 12:03 PM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…
 

  
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn  wrote:

 I think I will give this a try...I don't have that particular natural 
 affinity either, but it would be an excellent exercise for my brain in 
 exploring its capacity for communicating different perspectives, if only to 
 myself. 

Exactly, it is a neuronal challenge that makes us younger inside. 

 We haven't all internalized great pitch, however; I think that is skill is 
inherent to how the brain HEARS and differs between people.  I had a good 
friend in band, years ago, who always played flat...she couldn't hear the 
note. We went to go see a Peter, Paul, and Mary concert and she sang every 
tune with them, out of key.  Drove me crazy! Ha. 

Yes you have a point.  I am not sure if some people are the exception or if 
she was just not being directed to pay attention to the right thing.  But I 
still maintain that poor student performance comes back to the teacher.  And 
of course there are exceptions to every rule.  But for most of us we have 
everything we need to play music or draw.  One great line from one of my books 
is that if you have the ability to notice that a picture in hanging crookedly 
on the wall, you have what you need to draw.  As I continue to refine my 
pictures, adjusting a little here and there I really get what they mean. The 
process is simple, but you have to isolate what to pay attention to for it to 
be relevant.  That is where the instructional techniques come in. 

I have taken a photo of Son House and put him in a plastic sleeve that I drew 
1 inch squares on.  Then I made a light pencil line grid on my drawing paper.  
This guide is helping me SEE the simple shapes I need to focus on to draw this 
picture so much better.  It gives me a reference frame to compare the simple 
shapes in each square to.

One of my goals is to fill my walls with my sketches of the bluesmen and 
women.  It is a great modest, yet challenging level to work toward.  
Everything I draw now has a slight hinkiness to it.  But as I learn to settle 
down and take time to compare what I have drawn with what is in front of me 
and adjust it, I can see that it is possible, if just beyond my reach yet.

A perfect kick my brain's ass challenge for this decade of my life!

 
 
 
 
  From: curtisdeltablues 
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 11:27 AM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…
  
 
   
 Thanks for responding.  The great thing the Right Side of the Brain book 
 does is apply techniques to help us see things differently.  For example 
 she uses a small pane of glass (8X10 photo glass works great) with cross 
 lines drawn in to help your vision translate 3D images into 2 dimensions on 
 the plane of the screen.  I guess some people have a natural affinity for 
 this but I sure don't.
 
 I'll bet you have a much more developed artistic eye than you are giving 
 yourself credit for if you love and notice art.  I like to tell people who 
 are dubious about my you can play guitar spiel that if I am off one half 
 step on a note they will notice because we have all internalized great 
 pitch from listening to music.  So the trick is to translate that into our 
 bodies, more athletic than artistic.
 
 For drawing it seems to be a little trickier because some of our distorted 
 perceptions are actually important survival mechanisms.  So to SEE 
 perspective clearly enough we may need some counter-intuitive help.  
 Betty's book is excellent at this.
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn  wrote:
 
  Interesting story.  I am not a visual artist, and in fact, have issues 
  with spatial translation.  I cannot draw at all, but have, like you, 
  attempted to follow the lines or learn the lines of simple things.  In 
  looking at a tree, for example, I can follow the lines, but often the 
  dimensions are off when it translates to paper.  I can bring up a 
  visual of a fox, but cannot translate the image on paper.  I see this 
  as a brain issue; I cannot SEE to translating image on paper.  I could 
  never be an architect, but once the drawing is visualized for me, I can 
  describe it in space.  I love art however; it communicates so much in 
  ways that words do not.  One of my children has a more natural talent 
  of seeing visually; the other is like me and is reduced to elementary 
  drawings replete

[FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…

[turquoiseb]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn  wrote:

 I think I will give this a try...I don't have that 
 particular natural affinity either, but it would be 
 an excellent exercise for my brain in exploring its 
 capacity for communicating different perspectives, 
 if only to myself. We haven't all internalized great 
 pitch, however; I think that is skill is inherent to 
 how the brain HEARS and differs between people. I 
 had a good friend in band, years ago, who always 
 played flat...she couldn't hear the note. We went 
 to go see a Peter, Paul, and Mary concert and she 
 sang every tune with them, out of key. Drove me 
 crazy! Ha. 

What you possibly don't realize, and that might color
your view, is that Peter, Paul and Mary were one of 
the first created musical groups. Just as with the
Monkees, they were selected by a producer independently, 
and then carefully *trained* by this producer in the 
traits (and visuals, especially in terms of forcing 
Mary to grow long hippie hair to fit more into the
image he had in mind) and to learn the types of riffs 
and the types of music presentation that the producer 
thought would make them famous. Turns out he was correct. 
How much of this was talent, and how much training?

  From: curtisdeltablues 
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 11:27 AM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…
  
 
   
 Thanks for responding.  The great thing the Right Side of the Brain book 
 does is apply techniques to help us see things differently.  For example she 
 uses a small pane of glass (8X10 photo glass works great) with cross lines 
 drawn in to help your vision translate 3D images into 2 dimensions on the 
 plane of the screen.  I guess some people have a natural affinity for this 
 but I sure don't.
 
 I'll bet you have a much more developed artistic eye than you are giving 
 yourself credit for if you love and notice art.  I like to tell people who 
 are dubious about my you can play guitar spiel that if I am off one half 
 step on a note they will notice because we have all internalized great pitch 
 from listening to music.  So the trick is to translate that into our bodies, 
 more athletic than artistic.
 
 For drawing it seems to be a little trickier because some of our distorted 
 perceptions are actually important survival mechanisms.  So to SEE 
 perspective clearly enough we may need some counter-intuitive help.  Betty's 
 book is excellent at this.
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn  wrote:
 
  Interesting story.  I am not a visual artist, and in fact, have issues 
  with spatial translation.  I cannot draw at all, but have, like you, 
  attempted to follow the lines or learn the lines of simple things.  In 
  looking at a tree, for example, I can follow the lines, but often the 
  dimensions are off when it translates to paper.  I can bring up a 
  visual of a fox, but cannot translate the image on paper.  I see this 
  as a brain issue; I cannot SEE to translating image on paper.  I could 
  never be an architect, but once the drawing is visualized for me, I can 
  describe it in space.  I love art however; it communicates so much in 
  ways that words do not.  One of my children has a more natural talent 
  of seeing visually; the other is like me and is reduced to elementary 
  drawings replete with stick figures.  My last art class was in 9th 
  grade - I found that, for me, I am better at geometric shapes, abstract 
  translations at best.  
  
  
  
  
   From: curtisdeltablues 
  To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 10:21 AM
  Subject: [FairfieldLife] When I stopped believing my own lie…
   
  
    
  I know, a little Man Bites Dog headline, huh?  But since you are here 
  anyway…
  
  I was lying to some little kids again.  I mean not lying, lying but 
  tossing some bullshit that all of a sudden I began to smell.  I was in a 
  Title One school (poorest kids in their county) teaching them to write a 
  blues song to help them understand the difference between character 
  traits and feelings, which for a first grader is at the top of their 
  cognitive limits.  (Feelings change in the story, but character traits 
  persist to define how a character will behave in the story. Hopefully 
  character traits can also change through education, or we are all kinda 
  screwed, but you see the simple difference right?) 
  
  I was drawing a picture web of ideas using characters from their story 
  about a fox and a mouse and was drawing a really, really shitty fox.  I 
  mean worse than cave man on cave wall shitty. (No offense to our 
  ancestors meant some of them drew better than I did.)  I told the kids 
  that as a musician I tend to pay more attention to my ears so I practice 
  music but not drawing.  All this is sort of true, but what was a stinking

[FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…

[curtisdeltablues]

Wow, I did not know that about them.



--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:

 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn  wrote:
 
  I think I will give this a try...I don't have that 
  particular natural affinity either, but it would be 
  an excellent exercise for my brain in exploring its 
  capacity for communicating different perspectives, 
  if only to myself. We haven't all internalized great 
  pitch, however; I think that is skill is inherent to 
  how the brain HEARS and differs between people. I 
  had a good friend in band, years ago, who always 
  played flat...she couldn't hear the note. We went 
  to go see a Peter, Paul, and Mary concert and she 
  sang every tune with them, out of key. Drove me 
  crazy! Ha. 
 
 What you possibly don't realize, and that might color
 your view, is that Peter, Paul and Mary were one of 
 the first created musical groups. Just as with the
 Monkees, they were selected by a producer independently, 
 and then carefully *trained* by this producer in the 
 traits (and visuals, especially in terms of forcing 
 Mary to grow long hippie hair to fit more into the
 image he had in mind) and to learn the types of riffs 
 and the types of music presentation that the producer 
 thought would make them famous. Turns out he was correct. 
 How much of this was talent, and how much training?
 
   From: curtisdeltablues 
  To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 11:27 AM
  Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…
   
  
    
  Thanks for responding.  The great thing the Right Side of the Brain book 
  does is apply techniques to help us see things differently.  For example 
  she uses a small pane of glass (8X10 photo glass works great) with cross 
  lines drawn in to help your vision translate 3D images into 2 dimensions 
  on the plane of the screen.  I guess some people have a natural affinity 
  for this but I sure don't.
  
  I'll bet you have a much more developed artistic eye than you are giving 
  yourself credit for if you love and notice art.  I like to tell people who 
  are dubious about my you can play guitar spiel that if I am off one half 
  step on a note they will notice because we have all internalized great 
  pitch from listening to music.  So the trick is to translate that into our 
  bodies, more athletic than artistic.
  
  For drawing it seems to be a little trickier because some of our distorted 
  perceptions are actually important survival mechanisms.  So to SEE 
  perspective clearly enough we may need some counter-intuitive help.  
  Betty's book is excellent at this.
  
  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn  wrote:
  
   Interesting story.  I am not a visual artist, and in fact, have 
   issues with spatial translation.  I cannot draw at all, but have, 
   like you, attempted to follow the lines or learn the lines of simple 
   things.  In looking at a tree, for example, I can follow the lines, 
   but often the dimensions are off when it translates to paper.  I can 
   bring up a visual of a fox, but cannot translate the image on paper.  
   I see this as a brain issue; I cannot SEE to translating image on paper. 
    I could never be an architect, but once the drawing is visualized 
   for me, I can describe it in space.  I love art however; it 
   communicates so much in ways that words do not.  One of my children 
   has a more natural talent of seeing visually; the other is like me and 
   is reduced to elementary drawings replete with stick figures.  My 
   last art class was in 9th grade - I found that, for me, I am better at 
   geometric shapes, abstract translations at best.  
   
   
   
   
From: curtisdeltablues 
   To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
   Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 10:21 AM
   Subject: [FairfieldLife] When I stopped believing my own lie…

   
     
   I know, a little Man Bites Dog headline, huh?  But since you are here 
   anyway…
   
   I was lying to some little kids again.  I mean not lying, lying but 
   tossing some bullshit that all of a sudden I began to smell.  I was in 
   a Title One school (poorest kids in their county) teaching them to 
   write a blues song to help them understand the difference between 
   character traits and feelings, which for a first grader is at the top 
   of their cognitive limits.  (Feelings change in the story, but 
   character traits persist to define how a character will behave in the 
   story. Hopefully character traits can also change through education, or 
   we are all kinda screwed, but you see the simple difference right?) 
   
   I was drawing a picture web of ideas using characters from their story 
   about a fox and a mouse and was drawing a really, really shitty fox.  I 
   mean worse than cave man on cave wall shitty. (No offense to our 
   ancestors meant some of them

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…

[Emily Reyn]

Alright, one more.  No, I didn't realize that, but that isn't my point.  I 
don't dispute the benefits of training, or learning, or marketing - not at all. 
Look at Motown, for example.  My point is that the singers had inherent talent 
as individuals or perhaps, an inherent gift of singing on key and voices that 
rang out...let freedom ring.  Today, voice is not so importantafter all, 
look at what Kim Z of Real Housewives put together - tardy for the party with 
a lot of synthesized and mechanically tuned help.  That woman cannot sing on 
key either.   




 From: turquoiseb no_re...@yahoogroups.com
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 12:14 PM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…
 

  
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn  wrote:

 I think I will give this a try...I don't have that 
 particular natural affinity either, but it would be 
 an excellent exercise for my brain in exploring its 
 capacity for communicating different perspectives, 
 if only to myself. We haven't all internalized great 
 pitch, however; I think that is skill is inherent to 
 how the brain HEARS and differs between people. I 
 had a good friend in band, years ago, who always 
 played flat...she couldn't hear the note. We went 
 to go see a Peter, Paul, and Mary concert and she 
 sang every tune with them, out of key. Drove me 
 crazy! Ha. 

What you possibly don't realize, and that might color
your view, is that Peter, Paul and Mary were one of 
the first created musical groups. Just as with the
Monkees, they were selected by a producer independently, 
and then carefully *trained* by this producer in the 
traits (and visuals, especially in terms of forcing 
Mary to grow long hippie hair to fit more into the
image he had in mind) and to learn the types of riffs 
and the types of music presentation that the producer 
thought would make them famous. Turns out he was correct. 
How much of this was talent, and how much training?

  From: curtisdeltablues 
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 11:27 AM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…
  
 
   
 Thanks for responding.  The great thing the Right Side of the Brain book 
 does is apply techniques to help us see things differently.  For example 
 she uses a small pane of glass (8X10 photo glass works great) with cross 
 lines drawn in to help your vision translate 3D images into 2 dimensions on 
 the plane of the screen.  I guess some people have a natural affinity for 
 this but I sure don't.
 
 I'll bet you have a much more developed artistic eye than you are giving 
 yourself credit for if you love and notice art.  I like to tell people who 
 are dubious about my you can play guitar spiel that if I am off one half 
 step on a note they will notice because we have all internalized great 
 pitch from listening to music.  So the trick is to translate that into our 
 bodies, more athletic than artistic.
 
 For drawing it seems to be a little trickier because some of our distorted 
 perceptions are actually important survival mechanisms.  So to SEE 
 perspective clearly enough we may need some counter-intuitive help.  
 Betty's book is excellent at this.
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn  wrote:
 
  Interesting story.  I am not a visual artist, and in fact, have issues 
  with spatial translation.  I cannot draw at all, but have, like you, 
  attempted to follow the lines or learn the lines of simple things.  In 
  looking at a tree, for example, I can follow the lines, but often the 
  dimensions are off when it translates to paper.  I can bring up a 
  visual of a fox, but cannot translate the image on paper.  I see this 
  as a brain issue; I cannot SEE to translating image on paper.  I could 
  never be an architect, but once the drawing is visualized for me, I can 
  describe it in space.  I love art however; it communicates so much in 
  ways that words do not.  One of my children has a more natural talent 
  of seeing visually; the other is like me and is reduced to elementary 
  drawings replete with stick figures.  My last art class was in 9th 
  grade - I found that, for me, I am better at
 geometric shapes, abstract translations at best.  
  
  
  
  
   From: curtisdeltablues 
  To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 10:21 AM
  Subject: [FairfieldLife] When I stopped believing my own lie…
   
  
    
  I know, a little Man Bites Dog headline, huh?  But since you are here 
  anyway…
  
  I was lying to some little kids again.  I mean not lying, lying but 
  tossing some bullshit that all of a sudden I began to smell.  I was in a 
  Title One school (poorest kids in their county) teaching them to write a 
  blues song to help them understand the difference between character

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…

[Emily Reyn]

P.S.  Not that that is a good song, or anything...

P.S.S.  My main point was that god given talent is a real thing.  Some are 
born with perfect pitch...don't have to learn it.  Some will never hear the 
pitch, so could be schooled to ignore their ear perhaps, but it isn't the same 
thing.  




 From: Emily Reyn emilymae.r...@yahoo.com
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 12:56 PM
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…
 

  
Alright, one more.  No, I didn't realize that, but that isn't my point.  I 
don't dispute the benefits of training, or learning, or marketing - not at 
all. Look at Motown, for example.  My point is that the singers had inherent 
talent as individuals or perhaps, an inherent gift of singing on key and 
voices that rang out...let freedom ring.  Today, voice is not so 
importantafter all, look at what Kim Z of Real Housewives put together - 
tardy for the party with a lot of synthesized and mechanically tuned help.  
That woman cannot sing on key either.   




 From: turquoiseb no_re...@yahoogroups.com
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 12:14 PM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…
 

  
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn  wrote:

 I think I will give this a try...I don't have that 
 particular natural affinity either, but it would be 
 an excellent exercise for my brain in exploring its 
 capacity for communicating different perspectives, 
 if only to myself. We haven't all internalized great 
 pitch, however; I think that is skill is inherent to 
 how the brain HEARS and differs between people. I 
 had a good friend in band, years ago, who always 
 played flat...she couldn't hear the note. We went 
 to go see a Peter, Paul, and Mary concert and she 
 sang every tune with them, out of key. Drove me 
 crazy! Ha. 

What you possibly don't realize, and that might color
your view, is that Peter, Paul and Mary were one of 
the first created musical groups. Just as with the
Monkees, they were selected by a producer independently, 
and then carefully *trained* by this producer in the 
traits (and visuals, especially in terms of forcing 
Mary to grow long hippie hair to fit more into the
image he had in mind) and to learn the types of riffs 
and the types of music presentation that the producer 
thought would make them famous. Turns out he was correct. 
How much of this was talent, and how much training?

  From: curtisdeltablues 
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 11:27 AM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: When I stopped believing my own lie…
  
 
   
 Thanks for responding.  The great thing the Right Side of the Brain book 
 does is apply techniques to help us see things differently.  For example 
 she uses a small pane of glass (8X10 photo glass works great) with cross 
 lines drawn in to help your vision translate 3D images into 2 dimensions 
 on the plane of the screen.  I guess some people have a natural affinity 
 for this but I sure don't.
 
 I'll bet you have a much more developed artistic eye than you are giving 
 yourself credit for if you love and notice art.  I like to tell people who 
 are dubious about my you can play guitar spiel that if I am off one half 
 step on a note they will notice because we have all internalized great 
 pitch from listening to music.  So the trick is to translate that into our 
 bodies, more athletic than artistic.
 
 For drawing it seems to be a little trickier because some of our distorted 
 perceptions are actually important survival mechanisms.  So to SEE 
 perspective clearly enough we may need some counter-intuitive help.  
 Betty's book is excellent at this.
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn  wrote:
 
  Interesting story.  I am not a visual artist, and in fact, have 
  issues with spatial translation.  I cannot draw at all, but have, 
  like you, attempted to follow the lines or learn the lines of simple 
  things.  In looking at a tree, for example, I can follow the lines, 
  but often the dimensions are off when it translates to paper.  I can 
  bring up a visual of a fox, but cannot translate the image on paper.  
  I see this as a brain issue; I cannot SEE to translating image on paper. 
   I could never be an architect, but once the drawing is visualized 
  for me, I can describe it in space.  I love art however; it 
  communicates so much in ways that words do not.  One of my children 
  has a more natural talent of seeing visually; the other is like me and 
  is reduced to elementary drawings replete with stick figures.  My 
  last art class was in 9th grade -
 I found that, for me, I am better at geometric shapes, abstract translations 
at best.  
  
  
  
  
   From