Leo Lionni and The Urge to Make Things

Leo Lionni wrote and illustrated children's books. He was born in Holland in 1910. He moved to America in 1939 and worked as an art director for a few advertising businesses, including Fortune magazine. In 1962, he moved to Italy and began his career as an author of children's books. Before moving to the U.S. Lionni painted in Italy, strongly concentrating on Futurism and avant-garde aesthetics. When working in America, he was commissioned for some work by Saul Steinberg, Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, and Willem de Kooning. He also won a Gold Medal in 1984 from the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Creating with no end in mind is certainly my favorite aspect in art. It allows for the most creativity and it also relieves the pressure of deadlines and having to survive on what you create. When the issue of surviving (financially) comes into ones life, a constant worry is created over maintaining an income. This would tend to cause artist's to "sell out" and many do. This isn't a bad thing by any means really. I just feel like the need for an income really distracts from the idea of art. Art is meant for creation and reflection. It should provoke thought and curiosity. It should inspire viewers. Many artists do this, even the ones that are commissioned to do work and must work within certain perimeters set by the buyer of the work. Basically, I'm saying that the concern for money limits art. Art should just be creation and the enjoyment felt just by creating. Experimenting allows the most learning. Artists don't really learn if they are commissioned to do the same thing over and over again.

In this project, in this step of said project, we experimented. We created. We played. And it was all without any definitive idea in mind. We just set out to learn. Learn how our objects could be used to make marks. Learn what kind of marks can be made from these objects and processes. It was like being a child. No worries, just play. The process of creating these marks was an artistic experience. The task assigned to learn, and in this learning there was an enjoyment. I learned for the sake of educating myself artistically, not for producing one, final, restricted, and expected idea.