06/16/2026
Starting soon!
Our first art class we talked about the earliest traces of people. Following herds of wildlife, living a nomadic lifestyle, traveling from camp to camp, cave to cave, yet these people made time to chronicle the world around them. Why?
Was it a "how to" guide to other tribes? Was it the passing down of knowledge to younger generations? Or was it part of an inherent need humans have to tell their story?
Cave paintings, depictions of the natural world made from naturally found pigments such as charcoal, iron ore, sulfur, and chalk, leave us a glimpse into the daily lives of the earliest people.
Our second class we talked about Ancient Mesopotamia and the very beginning of civilization as we know it. By this time, people were domesticating animals and quickly advancing the sciences of agriculture, weather predictions, and star patterns.
These advancements allowed people to settle into a routine. Craftspeople start to perfect new forms of art. One of these art forms is Mosaics. These mosaics, made from chipped rock, pottery, and precious jewels, adorned courthouses, city offices, marketplaces and other important points in the everyday lives of the first city dwellers.
At the same time, there is a rise in organized religion. An association with the sun and growing crops gives rise to a Sun based belief system. Churches and temples become staples in society.
This time, we will fast forward to Greece during the peak of Idealism. To appease the gods, who control the weather, a new type of art form is unfolding from a familiar medium. Greek sculptors create artwork that was beautiful, intricate, and extravagant, but not necessarily accurate.
Idealism is an imagined depiction of humanity that focuses on what, at that time, was considered to be the most physically fit, aesthetically pleasing form rather than what the artist was actually observing. This reach for perfection was done in an attempt to close the gap between a very imperfect humanity and an exalted existence as a god.
In a world where whole cities can starve after a bad harvest, the need to please their gods was high on the list of survival strategies for the Ancient Greek.
Their contributions to art, philosophy, architecture, and science show a group striving for ultimate perfection.
