the democratization of the art of brain surgery

A.A. Milne [author of Winnie the Pooh], Autobiography. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1939, pp. 310-311—

…the modern eagerness to lower standards and abolish “form” [is distressing]. It is as if democracy had said, not “[Art] shall be open to aII,” as it has every right to say, but [rather] “Achievement in [art] shall be the [assured for everyone]; which is nice for all of us, but not so good for [art]. Sometimes I think it is a pity that, having gone so far, we do not go further, and say: “Achievement in sports shall be [assured for everyone].” As a golfer I should like to be able to look contemptuously down upon the old-fashioned practice of raising the golf ball in the air, and to abolish the old-fashioned rule which says, how foolishly, that the player who does the hole in the lean number of shots shall be the winner. It is more in keeping with modern ideals (and it is also easier) to go from one point to another in a straight line rather than in a parabola, and the playing of eight shots expresses your personality, which is really all that matters, much more completely than the playing of one. But alas! in sport you can only feel superior to the champions of the past by beating them at their own game and under their own rules. In the arts you can denounce the target, change the rules, aim in a different direction, hit nothing, and receive the assurances of your friends that you are the better man.

Also see Art, Design, and Brain Research: Non-Scientific Thoughts about Neuroesthetics

famous for an hour—his only sports achievement

Paul Pfurtscheller, c1910

Above Detail (restored and adapted) of anatomical wall chart by Austrian zoologist Paul Pfurtscheller (1855-1927), c1910.

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Roger G. Barker (Iowa-born social scientist) in Gardner Lindzey, ed., A History of Psychology in Autobiography. Volume VIII. Stanford University Press, 1989—

On the first day of the boy’s [himself] attendance at the junior high school in Palo Alto there is a free-throw basketball contest. Boy reluctantly joins the line of contestants; he has never thrown a basketball. He comes to the throw line; he hefts the ball and is surprised by its great weight. He throws—a good one. Another good one. Still another basket. On and on, he can’t understand it. He is a machine,…13, 14,…24 hits out of 25. The boy is famous for an hour, his only sports-connected achievement.

Bicycle Poster | Austin Montelius

Poster by Austin Montelius © 2016

Above Italian bicycle poster by Austin Montelius (©2016), graphic design student at the University of Northern Iowa.

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Nicholas Fox Weber, The Bauhaus Group: Six Masters of Modernism (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 2011), p. 132—

The painter Balthus once described an occasion when he and Alberto Giacometti met to call on [Paul] Klee, with whom they had made an appointment, only to become so enraptured talking with each other that they failed to walk the short distance to Klee's studio and simply stood him up. Neither felt guilty about the broken date because, much as they respected his work, they considered him unexciting as a conversationalist.

Teaching Drawing in the Dark

It was Monday, December 8, 1941, the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the day on which war on Japan was declared. That morning, a drawing instructor named Hoyt L. Sherman (1903-1981) arrived at his office at Ohio State University in Columbus to find his colleagues—still stunned by the news of the bombing—discussing how they, as teachers of subjects like art and design, could contribute to the country's defense. Sherman joined the discussion—and, within a matter of hours, he had come up with a curious plan. more >>>

Mad Dog Poster | Sara Peters

Wrestling poster © Sara Peters (2014)

Above One of sixty-plus "Mad Dog" Vachon posters designed In the spring of 2014 by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate student Sara Peters (©2014).

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B.F. Skinner, Particulars of My Life. New York: New York University Press, 1984, p. 44—

She [his mother] had one ability about which there was no doubt: she could find four-leaf clovers. If she saw a patch of clover on someone's lawn, she would bend down and almost immediately come up with a stem with four leaves.  She would frequently find two or three while the rest of us searched in vain. Her satisfaction was intense, and she never overlooked an opportunity to demonstrate her skill.

Mad Dog Poster | Alexa Weilein

Wrestling poster © Alexa Weilein (2014)

Above One of sixty-plus "Mad Dog" Vachon posters designed In the spring of 2014 by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate student Alexa Weilein (©2014).

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Allan Sly, "Excerpts from Taped Reminiscences of Black Mountain" in Mervin Lane, ed., Black Mountain College: Sprouted Seeds: An Anthology of Personal Accounts. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1990, p. 66—

[Bauhaus artist Josef] Albers was amongst those who came [to a Black Mountain College picnic in 1935]. When it came to toasting the hot dogs over the open fire, most speared their dogs with unbent coat hangers, but Albers preferred to bend his coat hanger into a letter S—laying his hot dog on top of it, which he then held over the fire. We pointed out to him the advantage of spearing it with the prong. But he said, "I like very much the S-form." His dog fell off into the fire.

Mad Dog Poster | Emily Thompson

Wrestling poster © Emily Thompson (2014)

Above One of sixty "Mad Dog" Vachon posters designed In the spring of 2014 by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate student Emily Thompson (©2014).

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Edward Marsh, A Number of People: A Book of Reminiscences. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1939, p. 138—

The only drawback to her [Lady Wenlock's] companionship was her extreme deafness, which caused her to carry about a peculiar silver ear-trumpet [a horn-like hearing aid], looking like an entrée dish, or anything rather than what it was…At a luncheon in Florence she suddenly presented it to her neighbor, an Italian Duke, who gallantly filled it with green peas from a dish which a footman was handing to him at the same moment; and at one of her balls in London she left it on the piano, where it was mistaken for an ashtray, so that when the Prince of Wales took her in to supper and addressed an opening remark to her, she immediately covered him all over with cigarette ends.

Mad Dog Poster | Ekaterina Korzh

Wrestling poster © Katie Korzh (2014)

Above One of sixty "Mad Dog" Vachon posters designed In the spring of 2014 by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of two posters designed by design student Ekaterina (Katie) Korzh (©2014).

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Joyce Cary, The Horse's Mouth. New York: Harper and Row, 1965—

"B-but, Mr. Jimson, I w-want to be an artist."

"Of course you do," I said, "everybody does once. But they get over it, thank God, like the measles and the chickenpox. Go home and go to bed and take some hot lemonade and put on three blankets and sweat it out."

"But Mr. Jimson, there must be artists."

"Yes, and lunatics and lepers, but why go and live in an asylum before you're sent for? If you find life a bit dull at home," I said, "and want to amuse yourself, put a stick of dynamite in the kitchen fire, or shoot a policeman. Volunteer for a test pilot, or dive off Tower Bridge with five bob's worth of roman candles in each pocket. You'd get twice the fun at about one-tenth the risk."

Dan Gable Graphics | UNI Poster Exhibit

Above are installation views of about eighty posters currently on display at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum at 303 Jefferson Street in Waterloo IA. As explained in earlier posts, these posters were produced by undergraduate students in a beginning course in graphic design, in the Department of Art at the University Northern Iowa. They commemorate the achievements (as both a wrestler and a coach) of Iowa-born Olympic wrestler Dan Gable, shown here in a recent photo (by museum director Kyle Klingman), when he stopped by to see the posters.

Graphic Design | Dan Gable Poster Project

Poster by Austin Von Ehwegen

Above In the fall semester of 2013, graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa designed more than one hundred posters to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. These were produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), and are currently on exhibit at the museum. Shown here is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Austin Von Ehwegen (©2013). Other student posters can be viewed online here and here.

Dan Gable Poster | Chelsea Reicks

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Chelsea Reicks (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Mackenzie Kane

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Mackenzie Kane (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Riley Place

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Riley Place (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Kelsey Frerichs

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Kelsey Frerichs (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Duke Dohrn

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Duke Dohrn (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Maicol Josephs

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Maicol Josephs (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Josie Wolter

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Josie Wolter (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Abby Bachman

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Abby Bachman (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Emily Morrison

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Emily Morrison (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Alexander Rogers

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Alexander Rogers (©2013).