Positions

The following is a mid-term exam I had to do in a humanities course at Colorado Technical University. The class was actually called Lifelong Learning, but incorporated Art and Music Appreciation into it as well. I am posting this to provide perspective on my life. I guess that's what this blog is about.

When you consider lifelong learning skills, when and where do you find the “right” or the “best” environment and the “right” or “best” time for you to concentrate and study? Consider these kinds of questions as you answer this one: is it morning or night, at home or in the library, alone or with a classmate?
My place and time to study used to be the kitchen table, starting at about 9pm and ending between midnight and 2am. Since I talked to [my instructor], I stopped studying at home; I now come to school with everything and sit in the library so I can be productive until one of my classes starts. The library provides privacy and eliminates distraction (dependent upon available seating; the front of the library is busy at times), creating an environment much like midnight at home. As I sit here today I am in the front part of the library and distracted by people walking by, the talkers up front, and the noise very near the “quiet” study rooms.
I am also drawn to wonder what could possibly be unique about all these management books. I know what environment I need, and if those requirements are met, the time of day has no relevance. In other words, if I had my spot in the library right now, I would have this test done already.

What are your three greatest motivators that help to propel you to success in achieving your college education? When answering this one, consider both internal and external motivators and identify your three greatest motivators as either internal or external.
I’ve never thought of this before, but it’s not a hard guess. Two external motivators, and one internal one. The first external motivator I have is my father. He spent twenty years getting through with his college education, and when he was done he didn’t have a single student loan to pay, and everyone called him “Doctor Rehberg.” I admire my father’s persistence.
The second external motivator is my friend, Scott. I have looked up to him since the day we met in the Army. He was determined to finish college when he got out of the service and be a chemical engineer. He read books on history because he wanted to; he must have had a hunger for knowledge in every field. He knew everything. Scott finally graduated college last month^*, but not as a chemical engineer. He once told me that he was going to run for president one year, so changing his major to political science wasn’t too bad of a choice.
The internal motivator is my recent conviction that I am an engineer. I tend to see this all of the time as I go through life. I love to find solutions to problems; solutions that no one thought of before. The problem is that I have no physics or mathematics background to begin a professional career as an engineer. I need these skills in order to put my mind to work.

Define art and its usefulness to society. In your answer, explain how art is used to judge, gauge, or evaluate a society. Present your case or argument for whether or not art and the arts should be funded by a government just as education is currently funded.
Art, by my own definition, is the expression of feeling to modify the emotion of its audience. This is not the only definition of art – art is also used to tell stories and to preserve history. History is what this country is so proud of – its 200-plus years of it. To preserve our art and fund the creation of it is to encourage the making and recording of history as it happens. There’s a picture someone took of Jack Ruby as he pulled the trigger on Lee Harvey Oswald (that photographer lives in Colorado somewhere; he was on the news last year about the photo.) That photograph is an excellent example of a form of art preserving events in American history.
Art should be funded by the government. There never was much money in painting or sculpting, and only the college-trained can get a job taking pictures, so the monetary benefit of being an artist is not appealing. But if one holds a desire to paint, sculpt, or photograph strange things (like Piss Christ by Andres Serrano, a picture of a crucifix inside a four-gallon tank filled with the artist’s urine), they should be able to do so. There are so many non-productive people living on government funding; why shouldn’t the government support those who produce artifacts of the nation’s history?

How do you believe our society will be measured based on our current art, including pop art? Identify 2 or 3 specific pieces or examples of art (from the past 3 or 4 decades to today) and use them to justify your reasoning. You should give some consideration to the art that we see in art galleries, in museums, paintings in stores and even the art that you may see or wear on tee shirts.
In 200 years, if we haven’t destroyed all that is living, we should see a bit of art from the 20th century. Art today varies widely from scenic paintings to odd photographs to abstract building and sculpture design. We even incorporated mechanics into our art – using moving parts and such.
We will probably be taken as people who couldn’t make up our minds about anything. We are a nation of varying nationalities and cultures, changing constantly. Some artists despise things that other artists admire. There will be many stories to conjure up about the “Americans” and various opinions will certainly be composed.
There are several comical examples of our art from decades past, one idea of which there are many paintings: dogs playing poker. This is probably funny to women whose husbands go play cards every week while drinking and smoking. Since men are commonly referred to as “dogs,” those husbands may as well be dogs sitting around the card table drinking and smoking, barking their opinions on this and that and complaining about what they do all week. It tells us of the “working man” who gets a chance to get away from work and home to relax with the guys, which is common today. We just don’t play cards anymore.
Other examples of art that may be used to judge us will probably have more to do with advertising. The most publicized art today is, of course, in advertisements. One popular logo of this age is Intel Inc.’s logo for their line of computer CPUs. This is found on literally millions of computers, including my own two systems, and more than half of the systems I’ve repaired. This will never be forgotten as a globally recognized logo from a very successful company. It might still be around in two hundred years, albeit changed for the evolving market, but nevertheless known around the world for being the leader in CPU sales and semiconductor engineering.

Identify 4-5 criteria that you personally use to gauge a “good” piece of art. Explain why your criteria are important to you.
Okay, criteria of “good” art: creativity and meaning, accuracy, lighting, and obvious talent. Norman Rockwell is a perfect example of all these criteria. He was creative in the stories his paintings told about American life, especially the experiences of children, who go through the same type of things today. Every day, in some part of the country, a parent gets called to a school for their child fighting. It doesn’t make headlines, but it’s usually a big deal to the family. Rockwell captures these locally catastrophic events in his paintings of children, some examples being the taking of medicine, getting shots at the doctor’s office, and a girl picturing herself in a prom dress. Rockwell’s creativity is exemplified in his self-portrait. Most artists who make a career out of painting eventually paint a self-portrait, but Rockwell did something fantastically different. He captured a picture of himself in the act of painting a self-portrait. Who would have thought of that?
Lighting is well-used in Rockwell’s paintings to bring reality to the picture, often bringing oil-on-canvas to photograph quality. Rockwell’s lighting goes right along with his accuracy in the picture.
Just looking through a book of his art, one can see Norman Rockwell’s obvious talent. On the cover of the Saturday Evening Post dated November 4, 1944, a picture of Rockwell’s was printed, as were many of his works. In this picture, however, one can see that the artist was perhaps very meticulous. It’s of a man in a voting booth making his last-minute decision on whom to vote for. The man in the picture is holding the current newspaper, and the faces of the presidential candidates, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Thomas E. Dewey, were on the front page. How Rockwell did this with a brush escapes me. He stands alone as my favorite artist; I plan to have several prints of his works on my library walls.


^*This document was originally published in May of 2004.