I ran into Marsha at Target on Sunday, the day before the class officially launched. When I asked about how the process (of creating the course and getting it on-line) was going, you should have seen her face light up! "It's done!" she said with a big grin. She's done the journey on the course and had a great time--now it's our turn!

Ok, onto the questions:

Is art a universal language? I think yes and no. Art is both process and product. I think the desire to make art and the act of making art (the process) are universal, but the outcome is not and that cultural norms play a huge role in how we understand what is being communicated. For example, Nazi Germany understood itself to be superior to other races. If a German artist of the 1930's produced a work referencing a strong sense of self, I don't know how much I could separate the work from the culture. Art is very much a product of the time and place it is made.

So yes, I think translation is sometimes neccessary. The globally shared human experiences of joy, anger, defiance, defeat, love, sadness, fear--all these are shared, and all are communicated. But I wouldn't always know they are being communicated.

Great questions to get us started. I guess that's a good mark--if the questions don't have straight answers. And art is the most perfect arena to explore it. (Ok, I'm prejudiced toward art...)