Art, Unemployment and Recreation

Wow could I have selected a topic for this post with such a wide range of possibilities for discussion and or description?
Please bear with me on the subject of this post. While some of the disheartening aspects of unemployment are discussed There is good news and positive solutions for personal replenishment.

First the term "unemployment" is limited and perhaps a poorly descriptive term. At best a word used to describe the condition or situation of being disconnected from a job, from an employee employer arrangement.
I say poorly descriptive because while not being gainfully employed and receiving a once regular paycheck, one is consumed with the task and work of procuring a new job or making work suitable to adequately providing for the needs of ones family and oneself.
With so many individuals still at the time of this writing October 09, being added to the still nationally growing list of unemployed. A double digit figure and statistic.
The focus of this post.
My thoughts and concerns are for how those individuals, (a group that since August am a part of) are coping with the stress that accompanies unemployment.
Although my statistic classification is unemployed my daily routine has changed from performing tasks for an employer in exchange for a paycheck to conducting a job search and diligently finding or making work. Indeed a stressful and at times a disheartening proposition given the current state of the economy.
For those individuals also in this position my concern is that they will be able to afford and take part in recreational activities.
Recreational activities are more than a luxury. They are a necessity for mental and physical replenishment.
Most individuals that have become unemployed have to pull in the reigns on ancillary spending. Unfortunately often time this includes funds previously allocated for recreation. While funds for recreation may be reduced or curtailed the need for recreation really becomes more important than ever. The previous situation of employment most likely provided at least some level of continuity in ones life.
The need for replenishment provided by recreation is really important and can be even greater than when employed. Keeping morale up is curtailed to maintaining a positive outlook towards work and life.
The good news is that while recreation and entertainment budgets may be reduced or even non existent, art specifically sketching and keeping a sketchbook can provide a lot of recreation.
I practice, enjoy and instruct others in this most worthwhile activity. It’s an activity that provides physical exercise, aids greatly in mental thinking and clarity. A famous quote regarding art is that art is activities where you can both loose yourself find yourself. I have found this to be true, exceedingly true.
Taking your sketchbook and going afoot rewards the individual with the huge benefits of physical activity. Pausing to sketch your surroundings develops a more acute awareness of your environment.
Often individuals are amazed with how much pleasure and appreciation they develop for simply taking time to pause and explore the sometimes most simple things.
Best of all in financially good times or difficult times sketching requires little or no cost. I have instructed very financially successful individuals in sketching as an activity. One of the couples that participated in an outdoor workshop called me a few months after the workshop reporting that after a day’s business convention they forwent the usual evening social and took their sketchbooks and went sketching. They said it was one of the most pleasurable evenings they had spent in a long time.
My personal crusade is to instruct and share with others alternative recreational possibilities.
While ambling about sketching may seem a new thought many individuals in the U.S. and abroad take part in this growing form of recreation. It is also a perfect activity for group activities. Some individuals form groups and all meet and do sketches of a particular location.
My personal blog An Easel A Brush is an example of one of the ways I enjoy sketching as both outdoor and indoor recreation. Please check my news and events page often for upcoming activities and my classes and workshop pages for classes and workshops.
http://www.easelbrushbus.blogspot.com/

What Makes A Great Art Education

My first formal art education began about 40 years ago in the 7th grade. My instructor the late Frank Erickson structured an educational art experience that for years I likened to a comprehensive university arts program. The last several years I have come to appreciate that the experience was a combination of a structured program with the addition of considerable personal mentoring.
Frank himself a student of the University of Utah and a student of Utah’s LeConte Stewart built an arts program unique to the public education system. Students were introduced to the triad system of mixing color. Many weeks were spent making water color paintings on 4” x 6” pieces of paper using specified combinations of the primary, secondary and tertiary colors. As students gained an understanding of the basics they were allowed and encouraged to move on to the joys of oil painting and sculpture.
Frank really went the distance in mentoring students in oil painting. He scrounged up wood pallets with the assistance of Jan Denbutter the schools custodial manager, also himself a superb and gifted artist. The pallets were hauled to Frank’s home where at the end of his driveway tirelessly he would rip the wood into stretcher bars for the students to use for stretching canvass for their oil paintings. He was always making note of the caution required to avoid those “damn nails”.
I can only imagine the hundreds and hundreds of lineal feet of stretcher bar material he provided to students over his many years of service at Salt Lake City’s Granite Park Junior High School.
The stretcher bars were only one element of the process. Salvaged army canvass and seemingly bullet proof lacquer used as primer and gesso were also available at no cost for the students to use. Cutting the stretcher bars, stretching the canvass and priming the canvass are fundamentals I still enjoy today.
The basics and more advanced technical aspects of the oil painting process I learned were not all regimented or structured lessons. The fun and enjoyable aspects of the creative process were also identified and practiced and shared. Weather permitting outdoor painting and drawing was encouraged. Frank was always detailing out the roads and byways traveled to paint outdoors.

The aspect of art that is the focus of the Wasatch art blog is that of sharing and learning the enjoyment of the creative process. Ultimately a great art education is a combination of knowledge of technical skills that an artist can employ in different ways through the creative process. Most of all though enjoying the process, socializing working and exchanging ideas with other artists all come together in different ways at different times to make for great art experiences.
For more information and to learn how I personally use art as outdoor recreation please visit my blog:
http://easelbrushbus.blogspot.com