Growing up I largely felt that art and science were two exclusive disciplines and that I had to choose one or the other as to which represented me. I felt that my care for science could not flourish if I chose to continue my study of art. When it became clear to me that the direction of my life was to go towards art, I felt that science would simply have to be sacrificed.
Many artist have joined the arts and sciences in notable ways--most importantly Leonardo DaVinci. He was an artist and a scientist, but what made for both?
What convinced my heart and mind that art and science are not in separate realms, but are in fact two aspects of one thing, is Eli Siegel's logic on the subject. In a lecture titled "
Educational Method Is Poetic" he explained:
The relation of art and science is a relation of opposites. The purpose of art
is: from feeling to get to truth. The purpose of science is: from truth to get
to feeling or emotion. But they are about the same thing, with different
direction
Looking at the drawings of Leonardo don't we feel that he honors art and science from their beginning--from feeling to truth and from truth to feeling? We do! As art teachers we need to be able to encourage students to feel that art and science represent two large and deep aspects of humanity and their very own dear selves. The Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method enables a teacher to do this.
The lecture "Education Method Is Poetic" can be read in its entirety at the
Aesthetic Realism Online Library.
To learn more about the relation of art and science, see the important work of my colleague and science educator,
Rosemary Plumstead, including in her thrilling paper "
Aesthetics, The Human Heart and Ourselves!" And also this report of an Aesthetic Realism class by Eli Siegel titled "
Presence and Absence; A Consideration of the Arts and Sciences" by Lynette Abel.
