Lindsey Lindgren

August 10, 2014

Artistic Development

Personal Artistic Development

Early artistic experiences
My art education started from day one for me. My mother is an art teacher and has been
for 40 plus years. She is the reason why I have grown up in an enriched artistic environment. She
is one of the reasons why I am seeking out the art education profession too.
Early on I was encouraged to work with different mediums. I was happily painting at six
and was learning to draw and sculpt with private lessons during elementary and middle school.
My mother did not only introduce new materials and mediums she also provided private lessons.
She made sure that the foundation was stable and rich for my artistic development.
For many hot summers my family would stay in New York City. With every visit we
would explore more of New York Citys culture. I recall fondly Edgar Degas Little Dancer
sculpture as my favorite and as a little girl I idolized that rough and gorgeous work. I wandered
around and around the piece until my mother dragged me out of the exhibit room. All I wanted to
do was touch the skirt as a little girl. The next Christmas my mother gave me a necklace with the
dancer as a charm. I treasure that little dancer charm.
My early development was not only with art; I was in dance and music too. Eventually I
established a preference with 3D art making and I gave up dance. Music has also been a
wonderful experience. I go to concerts and enjoy classical piano recitals. I still play the piano and
love that I can relax with sitting down and jamming out.
Development over time
In high school I took a couple drawing classes, lost my passion for it and turned to the 3D
program. Also at this point in my education I was studying as many subject areas pertaining to
social and cultural history as I could. My Advance Placement Art History class took an extended
weekend to see the museums in New York, and it felt like an artistic Mecca. New York is a city
that I grew up visiting. I do not think I could live there, but I appreciate the speed, growth,
energy, and life of human culture it has to offer.
My love for travel influenced my art education a great deal too. In 2012 my mother and I
cruised Italy for 23 days, the trip of a lifetime. As an art history major I was surrounded by
history and culture that I had only read and dreamed about. We started in Rome and ended in
Venice, which was a great way to end the trip. The experience was so fresh and enlightening that
I promised myself that I would visit a new city every year. For 2013 I ventured off to Chicago
and was happily engulfed into another fast paced city. By making it a personal goal to view art
frequently I am making sure my artistic voice is being nourished.
College was another animal for my artistic experience and education. During my State
College years I was more inclined to take studio classes because they made me feel good. I took
as many literature, history, and art classes as I could. These three subject areas for me all related
and were fun to learn. I felt the happiest making connections between history, culture, and art. I
see them all as important topics to learn. When I buckled down to finish my BA with the
University of South Florida I focused upon art history because it is a combination of art, culture,
and history.
I agree with the point that Smith-Shank states, cultural advantages seem to have defined
their own values on the artwork they see and own and appreciate (1996, p. 52) while discussing
the advantage children with cultured and educated upbringing. I am a product of this type of
educational upbringing. From an early age I have been able to define my own taste in artistic
preferences. To list a few, I prefer classical music to jazz, painting over drawing, and sculpture to
architecture. I am grateful for this advantage that I have been provided in my artistic
development. In the future I hope to teach others to have their own opinions about art and
culture.
Another valid point of discussion that I discovered was made by Leeds. She mentions
how Lowenfeld values the emotional and mental growth of children as reflect in their art
(Leeds, 1989, p. 101). Often I find that as a sometimes-practicing artist I create works that are
reflective upon my mood and current state of circumstances. I think an artists mental and
physical state plays into their creating. For example would be varying works by Monet. He
worked early in the day when the light was brightest because his vision was gradually
diminishing. His early works in life were light and in a pastel palette. Monets works gradually
became darker infused with red tones because his eyesight was failing.

Pivotal moments
During my time with the University of South Florida I learned about the artists voice.
Concepts and Practices was the turning point in my artistic development as an adult. Kim
Millspaugh taught Concepts and Practice. She was one of the few professors that I could relate to
artistically and personally. Her curriculum pushed to create from the inner soul. I sat through an
entire year of art history survey classes thinking about her class, realizing everyday I wanted to
create and teach art. I kept going back to the pleasure I had with sharing and creating. Once
earning my BA in Art History I was able to apply to the University of Floridas Masters in Art
Education in 2013.
Pivotal works

Lindgren, L. (2010). Heirloom. Mix Media.

Heirloom (2010) was created in Millspaughs class as a response to the topic about
family heirlooms. The work could not be seen or read directly as an item or object that could be
identified as an heirloom. I created this uneven sculpture with reaching vine arms as a vessel that
harbored trinkets that were to be read as notes about my personal family history. It is a box that
holds a nest with a lid that allows the viewer to peak in. It is a work that is visually interactive
because the viewer explores the exterior and interior.
Another project that I created in Millspaughs class was my Black Market Pollock series.
The assignment was to enlist others to aid in a creative work. You could not tell the other(s) what
you were enlisting them to do. I provided buckets of paint, brushes, turkey baster, and canvas for
the class to dribble upon. The end result included 8 canvases varying in warm and cool tones,
some created by fellow artists and others purely created by me. The works were ultimately
displayed from my car trunk. It was to pay homage to the idea that black market art could just as
likely be sold from the trunk of a car. I installed the display in different parts of town, set up
shop, and watched audience response. The work for me overall stirred up conversation and
questions. It allowed for me to provide a little history lesson about Jackson Pollocks style and
production methods.

Lindgren, L. (2010) Black Market Pollock, series. Latex.
Learning about art and technology
The most taxing learning experience I have had with art education is the hybrid that is
being developed between art and technology. But I have been able to learn about this new
movement with the University of Floridas Art Education program. When I enrolled in Digital
Media and Digital Video I was faced with learning new and old programs in technology. I
learned the most from Digital Media because it was the type of class that encountered social,
culture, and historical study. It was the class that took everything visual and challenged me as a
sometimes-practicing artist to apply myself with the Photoshop program. While I was working
with digital images and creating manipulations I was actively being challenged to include
multiple topics that a viewer could relate to. Social media, cultural trends, and present events
were topics that were discussed and explored intensely.
Digital Video was the type of class that I could not relate to. I went through the paces in
this class and to me it was like a history of film infused with some application. It only reminded
me of the video production classes that were offered by the social media specialists in middle
and high school. I had a difficult time relating to the process of creating videos and mini-films as
a form of art. I do see and acknowledge it as a medium that artist use; I just do not see how I can
apply this knowledge to a class that will potentially not have computers readily available with
the same programs. Technology is advancing so much that I am sure what I learned is already
pass in the grand picture. What I did take away from the class was the process of creative
thinking and storyboarding my ideas. It made me better organized with ideas.
Current practices
My current practices are experimental, but I look to the past for foundation. Being an art
history major I always look to how works were created, shown, promoted, and culturally viewed
then and now. I find it important to refer to the past because it is were we come from. Without
the past there is not a present taking shape.
When I create work I look to the past for inspiration. In the case of creating my own
youth inspired piece I looked to the past of my own youth. I would draw countless portraits of
horses. I wanted to recreate this with a new twist that shows my own developed adult style. As a
child I would not actively focus upon how artwork is read by the eye. Now I aim to get the
viewer to travel through my piece with attention to color and balance.

Lindgren, L. (2014). Horse Portrait. Mix collage.
Another current practice that I make sure to do is referencing other artists. I want to make
sure what I am inspired by receives credit. Original thoughts and processes are limited but not
unheard of. But if I know that a process or style has been done before I want to credit the right
individual. I admire how Earth Works encourage unity and peace with our race and
environmental space. When I create my organic shapes I think about what other artists have been
working in similar patterns and style.

Lindgren, L. (2013). Leaf Puddles. Photography.
Leaf Puddles was captured while I was on a photographic adventure to find organic
scenes in nature. Patrick Dougherty and Jeanne-Claude and Christo are artists that I look to when
thinking about nature and Earth Works because they work with the interactions that humans have
with space and environment. I encountered this rock that was cupping leaves and mulch. The
lighting was perfect and I was happy to capture the moment in nature.
Everything that I have learned so far and everything that I will learn in the future I intend
to apply in the classroom. I want to share with my students how to develop themselves as artists
and as expressive individuals.

References
Smith-Shank, D. (1996). The amazing artworlds of culturally advantaged high school students.
Art Education, 49(2), 50-54.
Leeds, J. A. (1989). The history of attitudes toward children's art. Studies in Art Education,
30(2), 93-103.