Body Quote by John Baldessari
“I was teaching live drawing in a community college and students started zoning in on the face and spending a couple of hours on that and then putting the rest of the body on the face only in the last hour. It didn't work to just tell them, 'Well, you're really not thinking of the body as a totality.' So in desperation I would put a drape over the model's head so they couldn't see it. They had to draw the body and then at the end of the session for an hour I would take the drape off just to try to reverse their procedure.”
About This Quote
Source Lecture: Live drawing class, community college, date unknown
Students focused on faces, neglecting whole-body integration; instructor used a drape to force holistic drawing, highlighting the need for seeing the whole form before details.
In simple terms: Students ignored whole bodies; instructor used a drape to teach holistic drawing.
Key Takeaway
Use constraints to shift focus from parts to whole.
Themes
teaching
art
perception
holistic thinking
Mood
challenging
instructive
Type
educational
practical
When to use this quote
- art class
- design workshops
- studio practice
- visual training
Key Concepts
Gestalt perception
visual hierarchy
pedagogical constraints
Questions to Reflect On
- How can constraints foster deeper understanding?
- What other methods encourage holistic perception?
A Different Perspective
May limit creativity if overused; students might feel frustrated.
![“I've used the Phoenix Centrifuge to replicate what the body's going to go through on the flight up. I've also done some gravity tests with ZERO-G [a charter-flight service in Arlington, Va., that uses modified Boeing 727s to simulate weightlessness], which went great.” quote by Richard Branson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/aa1/richard-branson-256_adventure_i-ve-used-the-phoenix-centrifuge-to-repl_903.jpg)
