BEGINNING 
Getting It, Chapters 1 & 2

​LESSON #1: You only know what you know.

This lesson is self-explanatory, but for some reason a lot of folks think that "getting" Art, particularly non-representational, Modernist and now Postmodern art should be automatic. Here's what I say: if it's important (and Art, capital A has been and still is and can be important), it deserves study. Why else would there be college majors and graduate studies in the field of Visual Art? If you think it's about talent and self-expression... well, there's quite a bit more to it than that!

I've kept these lists for nearly 30 years, having read about this exercise in A Life of One's Own by Joanna Fields. What I discovered is that the things that annoy me tend to be unnecessary interruptions and the things that thrill me almost always happen when I am alone. So, I figure out ways to avoid being disrupted, and I create a lifestyle that gives me lots of solitude.

But what it teaches us about Art... sometimes we look at art, or listen to music, and say "That's wonderful," when we really mean "I like it"; and we say "That awful" when we mean "I don't like it." Conversely, we know that it's possible to recognize the value of something while not being personally attracted to it.

​LESSON #2: You know what you like.

Recognize your personal preferences, but keep them separate.
They are about YOU, not about the art, music, play, etc.