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Sunday, May 17, 2009

Looking At Art With Sister Wendy

Many years ago I happened to catch a series on PBS with Sister Wendy. I was lucky to catch it on a weekend and I spent one entire day doing nothing else but watching her. I don't even think I ended up getting dressed that day. Her descriptions, meanings, definitions, & things she pointed out made me look at art in a way I had never before.
Today as I was roaming around Youtube looking for something interesting to share with you I found Bill Moyers' fascinating interview with Sister Wendy Beckett this afternoon and could not quit watching. I was completely enthralled by her once again and watched all 6 parts and wish I could find the 7th. Watching every part is lengthy but watching them in order is certainly worth your time even if you are not an Artist. After this post I'm going to be shopping for some of her books & videos.
I feel Sister Wendy hits it on the head when she suggests looking at a few things & studying a few things at a time. Looking at image after image even though it can be fun at times, (easy to do on stumbleupon or flickr) I find kind of squashes my own creativity. I spend hours thinking about all the things I've seen and wanting to try new things, go off in different directions, instead of concentrating & working on my own art. I love her opinion that art "deepens our awareness of things that matter." In this conversation Part 3 Sister Wendy talks about looking at art.

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3 comments:

Carolee said...

What a wonderful clip...haven't seen her in years, and I'm thinking I should seek out the dvd's. :)

Thanks for sharing it...

~ Carolee

MagicMarkingsArt said...

Years ago I bought Sister Wendy's book, "A child's book of prayer in art" to share with my elementary art students (I worked in a private school). One of her quotes is "Looking at art is one way of listening to God." A beautiful statement. The paintings she selected for this book illustrate the important values in life.
It is absolutely wonderful.
Thank you for sharing the video.

suzi whitaker said...

Oh My Gawd! I love Sister Wendy!!! I would love to get a DVD collection of her series. I tagged you... come on over to my site!
XoXo, SuZi