Art in every day life

The other night I was telling my husband that in knitting I finally feel like I've found my medium. I've played around with so many, and showed talent in a few, but not an overwhelming amount, and it generally hasn't been enough to actually make me want to pursue whatever it was I was doing. Over the years I've learned watercolor technique (respect to all those who work in this medium. It is a pain in the ASS), pencil and charcoal drawing, pen and ink (including sumi-e), and various acrylic painting types. I've sewn, quilted, embroidered and beaded. I've crocheted. I've played numerous musical instruments (piano, cello, french horn, percussion) and sung. I've danced (ballet, modern, tap, odissi). I enjoyed all of them. Ok, most of them. The french horn and watercolor were both beyond me in terms of ability. I also have dabbled in photography, but I can't really count that one as I can't focus a camera. It wasn't until recently that I discovered that is due to the fact that I have no depth perception. Thank God for autofocus.

I don't know why I resisted learning to knit for so long. Maybe it just wasn't the right time.

All of a sudden I've developed a deep interest in art theory. I'm guessing that it stems from the knitting, although it could come from my background in various other media.

I picked up The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda, which although it purports to be a business book, and can be found in the business section, really is more about design than about business. It's a beautiful little book, with some truly great analysis of things, including the best explanation of why we need white space in our designs that I've ever read. I mentioned this book in an earlier post, but I was only starting to read it. This book is awesome.

Secondly, I was going to pick up a copy of Design as Art by Bruno Munari today, as I had a $10 off coupon at Borders, however I read through some of it and decided that it wasn't really what I was going after in terms of art theory. It's got a very pretty cover though:



However I found mis-shelved next to it a book called The Accidental Masterpiece - On the Art of Life and Vice Versa by Michael Kimmelman. This book seems absolutely perfect. I shall report on it later.

I am not really interested in what art is. I am much more interested in the role that art (and creating it) plays in everyday lives.