Last night, I decided to attend a lecture in the atrium of Luther College's Center for the Arts given by guest artist, David Dunlap. Dr. Dunlap is best known for his bizarre artwork, art materials, and art galleries ranging from topics such as Martin Luther King Junior, the common walnut, anchors, swastikas, beer that supports tyrants, underwear to be worn in tandem, and an exploration of what exactly it means to be 'obscene'. However, this lecture was started in a very simple way. Dr. Dunlap took a small notebook out from his pocket, a Bic four-color pen from his shirt, and scribbled a sizable black dot on an empty white sheet. He explained, after he numbered and dated this black dot, that the process of drawing this dot was soothing for him, and that he has notebooks filled with such collections of dots.
It was at this point of the lecture that I became skeptical of this man. What does a scribbled black dot have to do with art? As he continued to speak, it came to me. To David Dunlap, this dot of ink on his small notebook was the most basic unit of art. It is the most basic of subjects, and is nearly impossible to draw incorrectly. Of course it would be soothing to go back to the very beginnings of what art is at it's very base.
Being a music education major, I could not just leave this explanation alone. I pried into my own mind to discover my own thoughts about my own field. What is the most basic unit of education? Is it the lecture? Is it the spoken word or the gesture? For me, the answer was clear. The thing that an educator can go back to over and over again and embrace to remind himself why he does this job is his passion. Much like Dr. Dunlap and his strange dot, the passion for education can be inconceivable to the outside observer. They are confounded, and scratch their heads wondering what in the world could keep a person doing a job so difficult and demanding. One has to be fully immersed in the respective professions and truly determined to make an impression on the student or the viewer.
Dr. Dunlap may have been speaking about a field that I did not fully understand. However, I could relate to much of what he spoke about. We all push the boundaries of our own professions. We test our limits, and some ideas succeed while others do not. No matter what happens, we each have a method of recharging our batteries. We go back to the very beginning and we remind ourselves why we got into the job in the first place. For some artists, like Dr. Dunlap, it is the creation of art, no matter how simple. For some educators, it is the reminder that one small step forward is a success, and that they would do anything for that step. This steady march of learning is what reminds educators how much they love their job.
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Andrew, this lecture sounds like it was very interesting. It's really great that you got so much out of his lecture. I too have always wondered how a simple dot, line or splash of color could possibly be art. But isn't that what we deal with in education too? All of our students are going to be different dots or colors and we have to learn to teach all of them effectively. Always keep your passion, it's definitely the best asset to you as a teacher!
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