David Kahle

As an artist I find inspiration in everything. Art is everywhere… In peoples smiles, in the starry starry night, and, most of all, in unconditional love. Michelanglo Buonarroti did not create art simply because he felt divinely inspired. Inspiration serves as a reminder- as Mahatma Gandhi is quoted as saying, “when he thinks, he becomes”! Conceptual growth is important not only for human growth, but in learning to understand one another as human beings on Earth. For example, when I am talking to children, I get down to their eye level, and speak to them softly. When I consider the fact that we are only here for a short period of time in compairison to eternity; I try to make use of every moment, realizing that creativity serves as a medium toward positive growth just like how a nurse uses a stephascope as a tool for human healing. The radio show entitled, “The Incredible Adventures of Jack Flanders”, is a great way to use one of our five senses; sound. Francisco Goya lost his sense of hearing (sound), but still created incarnations of different realities based on his own experiences. Francisco Goya, the most enigmatic Spanish Romantic Artist, created spiritual incarnations of the Spanish War, nightmares (The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters), and most importantly, love (La Maja Vestida).

I remember sitting in front of Andy Warhol’s silkscreen entitled, “Cambell Soup Cans”. The Warhol print was placed next to a classical painting by the artist Peter Paul Rubens at the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo Ohio. As an artist I thought to myself, Holy Toledo, how art has evolved? Right then and there I had an epiphany, art is essential. It allows us to become what we see, and to be a part of life itself- AS a Professor of Fine Art here at Mount Marty University-I teach a wide variety of Fine Art classes… They include Painting and Drawing, Sculpture, Design, Ceramics, Art Appreciation, Photography, and at times Printmaking.  In addition, I am also the director and curator of The Bede Art Gallery. When a person is being creative, synopsis from the brain are being activated. For example, an individual has five senses-touch, sight sound, taste, smell. As teachers, I strongly believe our main objective is to provide lifelong learning. When an individual is able to put to use his/her senses by way of the Fine Arts, I believe they able to feel truly alive and most of all appreciated. Fine Art is not only essential in the class room it should be considered paramount for human intellectual and cognitive growth, which goes hand in hand with a person’s physiology  In conclusion, much lik  the Fine Art work of Peter Paul Rubens, Vincent Van Gough, art brings a smile and a sense of accomplishment and visual appreciation and understanding.