Spectrum of sanity. (art Across the Curriculum).

Spectrum of sanity. (art Across the Curriculum). Mental health is not binary. Few people are completely sane orcompletely insane. If it were possible to measure mental health on ascale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being the least sane) we'd probably allget grades between 2 and 8. Varying life circumstances might even causefluctuations of several points from day-to-day, week-to-week oryear-to-year. This continuum of mental health is often what one mustconsider with friends, and even ourselves. The same goes for artists. Consider the case of Walter Inglis Anderson Walter Inglis Anderson (September 29 1903 - November 30 1965) was an American painter, writer, and naturalist. Known to his family as "Bob", he was born in New Orleans to George Walter Anderson, a grain broker, and Annette McConnell Anderson, member of a prominent New Orleans (1903-1965), whosewatercolor, Chickens, is to your left. When Chickens was made, mostlikely in the early 1940s, Anderson was in his late 30s. He had justleft three years of on-and-off institutionalization InstitutionalizationThe gradual domination of financial markets by institutional investors, as opposed to individual investors. This process has occurred throughout the industrialized world. due to his suicidaland violent behaviors. He landed at his wife, "Sissy's,"antebellum home called "Oldfields" in Gautier, Miss., andspent the next seven years reading, drawing and painting.Anderson's subjects included farm animals, plants, trees, familylife and illustrations from books he read, most notably Don Quixote. Anderson was well-educated. He went to boarding school in New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of ,attended Parsons Institute of Design in New York and the PennsylvaniaAcademy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and he traveled to Europe, Chinaand Costa Rica. Anderson was an avid reader and a prolific writer; hisextensive journals (1,000 pages or more) and letters chronicle hispassion for life and art. Education and exposure to the world, however,do not buy mental health. The composition of Chickens, in light of his life when he createdit, might be interpreted as Anderson's attempt to deal with hismental illness. It could be seen as visual evidence of an exercise inbalance, mental or otherwise. There's something studied andstrained about the piece, almost too self-conscious in its push-pull ofcross-currents. Chickens, like much of Anderson's work, was created withlyrical pencil lines underlying watercolor paint. Its curves and primarycolors force the eye to shift left to fight, comparing the two sides ofthe composition. The finely woven patterns in the feathers and wings,combs and waddles, beaks and tails, run in three directions:horizontally, vertically and diagonally. Anderson even traverses thecolor wheel, juxtaposing purplish-blue with yellow. Chickens is balanced, but not exactly symmetrical. Anderson hascreated such imperfect symmetry in Chickens that the painting, likenature, becomes flawless again. Anderson's desire to merge withnature, become it, and live it, drove him to draw thousands of stylizedstudies of almost every living thing in his environment. He merged hisnaturalist-like curiosity with his attraction to repetitive designmotifs, savoring and exaggerating the near-perfect patterns of nature. A companion piece to Chickens also exists, titled Chickens Runningand dated by Anderson's estate somewhere between 1942-44. Bothwatercolors are part of Anderson's "Oldfields" (c.1940-47) period. Anderson's other two artistic periods were"Ocean Springs" (c. 1923-39) and "Horn Island Horn Island is the name of: Cape Horn, in Ant��rtica Chilena Province of Magallanes y Ant��rtica Chilena Region, Chile. Horn Island, Mississippi, USA Horn Island, Torres Strait, in the north of Queensland, Australia " (c.1948-65). Anderson transitioned (mentally, physically and artistically) inthe late 1940s, but he eventually returned home to his family'sOcean Springs property where he moved, alone, into a small cottage onthe estate. Anderson's brother Peter, who founded and ran thefamily business of Shearwater Pottery Shearwater Pottery is a small family-owned pottery in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, founded in 1928 by Peter Anderson (1901-1984), with the support of his parents, George Walter Anderson and Annette McConnell Anderson. , hired Walter (called"Bob" by his family) to paint 10 pieces of pottery a week for$10. Anderson's job at Shearwater shearwater,common name for members of the family Procellariidae, gull-like sea birds related to the petrel and the albatross and including the fulmar. Shearwaters are found on unfrozen saltwaters all over the world, with 35 species in North America. was the only steady job he everheld, although in 1935 he did create murals for the Ocean Springs Schoolunder a commission from the WPA WPA:see Work Projects Administration. WPAin full Works Progress Administration later (1939–43) Work Projects AdministrationU.S. work program for the unemployed. (Works Progress Administration Works Progress Administration:see Work Projects Administration. ) program. From around 1947 on, Anderson isolated himself more and more fromhis family. His cottage was off-limits to everyone, and for the rest ofhis life he journeyed between it and Horn Island, a narrow14-mile-long-by-1/2-mile-wide island about 10 miles across theMississippi Sound Mississippi Sound,arm of the Gulf of Mexico, c.100 mi (160 km) long and from 7 to 15 mi (11–24 km) wide, extending from Lake Borgne in Louisiana on the west to Mobile Bay in Alabama on the east. . Rowing a small skiff out to Horn Island, Anderson (who dubbedhimself "the islander") camped there for weeks at a time. Heused his boat for shelter from both sun and rain, and slept under it atnight. By day he drew and painted almost everything living heencountered, documenting nature in a style that is clearlydistinguishable as his own. Anderson created much of his art on typingpaper, which he transported in a garbage can along with food and ablanket. Living in semi-isolation with the support of his family gaveAnderson time to create more than 10,000 works of art: drawings,watercolors, prints, wood carvings and ceramics. However, perhaps themost astonishing discovery was the set of brilliant murals he painted onthe interior walls and ceiling of one room of his cottage, which came tolight only in the course of cleaning up after his death. It's a sensitive issue, that of mental health. Famous artists,such as van Gogh, have suffered from mental problems that both inhibitedand informed their art work. Similarities between the artistic stylesand working habits of artists with mental illnesses might sometimes befound. Images might be filled with swirling lines that depict bothvisible and unseen movement, as though the artists experienced the worldfrom a state of hyper-realism on some molecular level. Their similarworking habits--a kind of manic approach--have also been welldocumented. There are clear accounts of Anderson's episodes of extremebehavior. For example, during a nervous breakdown nervous breakdownn.A severe or incapacitating emotional disorder, especially when occurring suddenly and marked by depression.nervous breakdownin March 1937 hebarked on all fours, naked, while chasing his wife around the house,eventually biting her leg. (1) Anderson's habit of rowing off aloneto Horn Island for weeks at a time was probably one of the more healingand positive choices he could have made, and certainly the art heproduced there forms a remarkable legacy. How does art heal, possibly cure, or at least channel the intenseenergy felt by some people? Who knows what causes people to have periodsof mental illness in the first place? Perhaps their synapses fire toofast, or they have unusual chemistry, or at one point a bad experiencejolted their circuits. Whatever the causes, making art can be one of themore productive siphons for all sorts of excess energy. The beauty of the mental health continuum is that it lendsdimension to the rich texture of personality traits that comprise awhole person. Walter Anderson Walter Anderson may refer to: ArtWalter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965), American painter Walter Anderson (British artist) (-1886), British painter and husband of painter Sophie Gengembre Anderson Business wasn't always absolutely one way oranother; he experienced many different states of mind at different timesin his life. He might have behaved in extraordinary ways, but that ledto his most compelling and extraordinary art. (1) Gilbert, Bill, "Stalking the Blue Bear: The Fine Art ofWalter Anderson," Smithsonian Magazine, October 1994. SOCIAL STUDIES Project: Looking at Parenting. Key Skill: Understanding a parent's point of view. Materials: Source material on Anderson and personal experience. Procedure: One issue for Anderson, in dealing with his mentalillness, had to do with the difficulties and pressures of parenthood. Hehad to make a choice between art and parenthood, and he ultimately choseart. However, he used his art to communicate all sorts of wonderfulthings to his children: He illustrated nursery rhymes, made wooden toys,and even wrote a book, Robinson, the Pleasant History of an Unusual Cat.Discuss the pros and cons of Anderson's presence as a parent. For Grades: 8-12. VISUAL ARTS Project: Satisfaction in Action. Key Skill: Conveying action through repetitive lines. Materials: Any media, from pencil to paint. Procedure: In his attempt to convene with nature, Anderson wasfascinated with movement. He used patterns of lines and shapes to conveyhis perceptions of motion. Have your students choose a subject thatmoves, and then have them use lines to communicate the nature of theirsubject's movement. For Grades: 6-12. SOCIAL STUDIES Project: Influences from Afar. Key Skill: Understanding sources of imagery. Materials: Internet and library. Procedure: Walter Anderson was attracted to many kinds of art andadopted various artistic styles into his work, from cave paintings toChinese scrolls. Collect reproductions of Anderson's art (veryeasy, as many publications have covered his work) and compare with yourstudents the most obvious influences on his imagery. For Grades: 8-12. PSYCHOLOGY Project: Mental Health and Art. Key Skill: Compassion for and understanding others with mentalillness. Materials: Do an Internet search on "Art and MentalHealth." Procedure: To understand better the challenges and rewards of artas a healing source for those with mental illnesses, have studentsexplore the Web sites found from searching the above key words. For Grades: 7-12. LANGUAGE ARTS language artspl.n.The subjects, including reading, spelling, and composition, aimed at developing reading and writing skills, usually taught in elementary and secondary school. Project: ABC Studies. Key Skill: Uniting disparate items under one theme. Materials: Your choice. Procedure: For his children, Walter Anderson created a set ofalphabet block prints. They had the theme of living things Living Things may refer to: Life, or things in nature that are alive Living Things (band), a St. Louis musical group Living Things (album) by Matthew Sweet from nature.Have your students choose a theme and create a theoretical alphabet (notnecessarily illustrated) that supports their choice of subject. For Grades: 1-12. Younger children could do this as a classexercise together, whereas older students might even go so far as toillustrate their alphabets. INTERNET WEB SITES www.walterandersonmuseum.org A MUST-see Web site, the Walter Anderson Museum of Art The Walter Anderson Museum of Art (WAMA) is one of a few museums in the United States to exhibit work of a single artist. The museum, along with Walter Inglis Anderson's (1903 - 1965) work, also is home to the work of Peter Anderson (1901 - 1984) and James McConnell Anderson (1907 has done asuperb job of conveying Anderson's life and art in historical andsocial context, especially through the "Exhibitions" link thatthen leads to the Museum's "Exhibition Archives,"complete with images and excellent essays. Their Education Departmenthas videos and other free resources available, including a completebibliography on Anderson. Browse the Web site to find an interactivesection for children. Otherwise call (228) 872-3164 for moreinformation. www.walteringlisanderson.com/ shearwater.html Make the ceramics and printmaking printmakingArt form consisting of the production of images, usually on paper but occasionally on fabric, parchment, plastic, or other support, by various techniques of multiplication, under the direct supervision of or by the hand of the artist. connection through ShearwaterPottery and the commercial side of Anderson's family. This site hasinformative links to prints and other Walter Anderson products, some ofwhich are re-strikes from Anderson's original blocks andhand-colored by family. Tara Cady Sartorius is Curator of Education at the Montgomery(Ala.) Museum of Fine Arts Museum of Fine Arts,Boston, chartered and incorporated (1870) after a decision by the Boston Athenaeum, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to pool their collections of art objects and house them in adequate public galleries. . Prior to receiving her master's degreein sculpture and art criticism, she taught art for 10 years in publicelementary schools in California.