The Artist's Brain

 18 Mar 2015 by johnandann@theartistsroad

A study by Rebecca Chamberlain from KU Leuven, Belgium has found that artists have structurally different brains, compared with non-artists. Well, that explains a lot! I'm sure many of us have suspected as much, but now science is beginning to look into the matter and this small study has revealed some surprising details that distinguish the creative brain. Using a brain scanning method called voxel-based morphometry, researchers peered into the brains of 21 art students and 23 non-artists. What they found was that the artist group had significantly more gray matter in a region of the brain involved in visual imagery.

The Inner Studio, Tenth Street by William Merritt Chase, 1882.

Dr. Chamberlain also asked the participants to complete drawing tasks. Those better at drawing had increased gray and white matter in the cerebellum and in the supplementary motor area, involved in fine motor control. Related studies performed with creative persons in other fields (such as music) also suggests enhanced processing in these areas.

"It falls into line with evidence that focus of expertise really does change the brain. The brain is incredibly flexible in response to training and there are huge individual differences that we are only beginning to tap into," reports Dr. Chamberlain. This sounds to us like reinforcement of the 10,000 hour rule. Practice makes perfect perhaps because the brain is rewired to constantly get better at it while we work. Talent in art is useful, but persistence, especially in developing a skill, counts for more. Combine the two and eventually a great artist emerges from the years of hard brain-training effort.

Ellen Winner of Boston College, who was not involved in the study, said that this study should help "to put to rest the facile claims that artists use 'the right side of their brain' given that increased gray and white matter were found in the art group in both left and right structures of the brain." What would really nail all the data down would be a large-scale prospective study of the creative vs. non-creative brain. In the meantime, it is interesting to remember all the hours we spent with a pencil in our hands as we were growing up. Who knew then that we were not just having fun, but shaping our very future abilities in the process?

Esto valida con creces el esfuerzo que hacemos desde hace 9 años con nuestro concurso anual de dibujo, que este año se celebrará el sábado próximo, 28 de marzo.  Sabemos que el dibujo es el punto de partida de un proceso que hace crecer la creatividad y, por lo tanto, la productividad.  No dudemos que es tiempo MUY BIEN EMPLEADO!!!

La calle está durísima...

Como todos los años,  desde enero estamos tocando puertas para levantar fondos para llevar a cabo nuestro concurso de dibujo.  A más dinero, más premios y más publicidad...  Pues no les vamos a negar que se nos ha hecho difícil, situación que responde al estado económico...y emocional...en que se encuentra nuestra Isla.  Pero en esos momentos difíciles, estas actividades, que fomentan el arte y dan ánimo a los jóvenes y los "encubiertos"(los aficionados al arte que no lo ejecutan con fines de lucro) son las que debemos sostener, para no olvidarnos que "no sólo de pan vive el hombre" y que el ser humano lleva a cabo gestorías cuya sinrazón es precisamente su valor.

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This is the time of year when we go around knocking on doors to get sponsors for our annual drawing contest.  With more money, we can give better prizes and make more publicity.  Well, we can't deny that this year it has been harder than any other, responding to the state of the economy, and the emotional turmoil that this causes...  But it is precisely in times such as this when activities that promote art and give positive reinforcement to young people and art äficionados"(artists that don't call themselves that because they don't do it for profit) are important.  They remind us that  "man does not live on bread alone"  and that, as humans, we are capable of doing "senseless" things whose very value is their impracticality.

                                           Ayer fué "peces"... y hoy esto son.................."insectos"?

Claro que NO...estos son "juguetes", inventivas criaturas nunca antes vistas...que nos sorprenden y nos hacen regresar al mundo de la imaginación infantil.  Yo debo confesar que nunca fuí muy "valiente" en cuanto a crear cosas que los no artistas gustan de llamar absurdas.  Pero esta exhibición "se bota" precisamente en ese sentido.  Aquí casi se pierde de vista el mundo de las referencias animales y se pasa al universo paralelo de lo NUNCA VISTO. Disfrútenlo  y no dejen pasar la oportunidad de "adoptar"una de estas criaturas...ya yo escogí...

Yesterday I posted a picture of what looked "like" fishes... and these could perhaps be "confused" for insects..............NO WAY!  This are creatures that send us back to childhood imagination.  I must confess that I was never very brave when it came to making things that could be called "absurd"...but that is precisely what this show does.  It leaves behind  the animal references of the world we know and transports us to a reality beyond.

Come enjoy the experience and don't miss the opportunity of "adopting" one of this marvelous creatures...I already chose ...

Hiram Rosado: JUGUETEANDO

Cada vez que veo esta foto me echo a reir.  El gesto, la mirada y la "lengua por fuera"...  No deja de asombrarme lo creativo del tratamiento de las partes que la componen.  Aquí no hay reglas ni inhibiciones.  Hiram Rosado está en completo control de su creatividad.  Y ésta es una de más de 30 figuras que presenta en la exhibición  JUGUETEANDO,  cuya apertura será el próximo jueves 5 de marzo en la galería "The Art Room"(Calle Navarro #53 en Hato Rey).

Tras más de 26 años como maestro de cerámica, no es difícil entender que estas figuras son el resultado de su búsqueda de una forma de comunicar a sus alumnos, en especial a los niños, que no debemos poner límites a nuestra imaginación y que el barro está allí para hacer "lo que tu quieras".  Como él mismo dice: "los niños me hicieron hacerlo..."

Todos invitados...  LES ESPERAMOS!!!
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Each time I look at this picture I LOL.  The expression of that face, the tongue sticking out...  I am astonished at the extreme creativity in the handling of the "parts".  There are no inhibitions here.  Hiram Rosado is in complete control of his creativity.  This is one of more than 30 sculptures he is presenting in the show titled    "PLAYING...", that will open at "The Art Room"
Gallery on March 5 at 7:00 PM (#53 Navarro St., Hato Rey).

After more than 26 years as a ceramics teacher, it is easy to understand that this figures came about as a way to communicate to his students, specially the children, that there should be no limit to the imagination and that the clay is there so you can do "whatever you want".  The way he puts it:  "The children made me do it..."

Everybody invited...  SEE YOU THERE!

BOLIGRÁFICO # 9 !!!

Well, here it is, typo and all (It says dijubo, instead of dibujo), the first announcement of our yearly drawing contest.  Sponsored by PILOT PENS, the Municipio Autónomo de Caguas and, hopefully a few others, the contest is meant to encourage those that draw in their notebooks but don't feel they are "artists"...  Everybody knows at least one of those, the flowers that bloom in the desert and waste their perfume and their beauty, unseen.  This year, with a Grand Price of $500 cash, we hope to attract many more "aficionados", ages 12 to 112.  So, please, spread the word and tell them to go to our Facebook page (Fusion Isleña) and join us there, and at the Paseo de las Artes on March 21st.  We are feverishly working to prepare a few other surprises too.

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Bueno, aquí está, con todo y error tipográfico (dijubo), el anuncio de avanzada de nuestro concurso anual de dibujo.  Como siempre, PILOT PENS y el Municipio Autónomo de Caguas se unen para apoyar a los que dibujan incesantemente en sus libretas y no se reconocen como los ärtistas"que son.  Esos son los que "florecen"en el desierto, sin que nadie los vea...

Este año, un Gran Premio de $500 atraerá a muchos más aficionados, entre las edades de 12 y 112 años.  Si conoces alguno, y todos conocemos a alguien "que dibuja", pása la voz y únete a nosotros en nuestra página de Facebook para más detalles.  El concurso es en el Paseo de las Artes el 21 de marzo y aún seguimos trabajando para que hayan más sorpresas...

This challenge "thing"

Alimentación Boricua

Las nenas

Estolas de seda

A few days ago a young artist (she could be my daughter) "challenged" me to post a picture of my art for five days in a row on Facebook and to challenge one other artist each day to do the same.  Well, I failed miserably, because I don't get to my computer every day,  so a few days went by between artworks #2 and #3, which I just posted today.  It is a generational thing...  But , non the less, it is a great idea.  It made me think of the pieces I'm most proud of and it got me to send them "out there" into the web.  So, thanks, Linnette Vázquez Polanco and keep up 
trucking!!!
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Hace unos días, una artista joven, (que podría ser hija mía) me retó a que pusiera en FACEBOOK, durante 5 días consecutivos, una obra mía y que retara cada día a otro artista a hacer lo mismo.  Bueno, pues fallé porque durante varios días ni siquiera llegué a trabajar en la computadora, así es que pasaron varios días entre el día #2 y el día #3, que apenas acabo de "postear".  Es una cuestión generqacional..., pero una gran idea.  Me hizo pensar en las obras de las que estoy más orgullosa y ënviarlas a la red".  Gracias Linnette Vázquez Polanco y sigue p'alante con éxito!!!!

Long live the robots!!!

    LONG
LIVE
THE
ROBOTS!!!...
BUT...

At the MAKER FAIR, last Saturday, we shared the space with a lot of new and exciting technology.  After all, the use of technology is "the way of the future"...BUT, there were also those who, like us, were showing their products, made by hand, mostly or partly.  We are, after all, makers also.  We met some that are open to ideas about finding ways to associate in order to reduce the duplication of certain efforts, such as advertising, accounting and marketing.  That is "the way of the future" for creative craftspeople 
like us.
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En el MAKER FAIR del pasado sábado, compartimos espacio con mucha interesantísima tecnología.  Despues de todo, ese es el "camino del futuro"...PERO, también habían otr4os allí que presentaron sus trabajos hechos a mano, en parte o totalmente, como los nuestros.  Después de todo, también somos MAKERS.  Entre ellos, conocimos a varios que están abiertos a la idea de producir en asociación, para evitar la duplicación de esfuerzos en mercadeo, contabilidad y publicidad.  Ese es "el camino del futuro"  para los artistas y artesanos como nosotros.