Danforth Technical School - Tech Tatler Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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36 TECH TATLER to try to grasp the meaning of creation--through the artist within each one of us. That is what Canadian or any other art is for-just this-to know our own country,to learn to love its character and through and by means of this to learn to know our- selves. Art is the pathway to divinity within. Travelling along this path- way people in other countries and in future times will know our char- acter as individuals and as a nation. QQQOOOQQOQQQQQQOOOOQQ 0.00.0000 0.00.00.00.40.000006060500.06000.09.0500 O Qitt- a Erofeesinn for the Tllalzntgn ann linnustrwus 5- JBQ the Ibrrsinrnl nf the ilinyal jg: Qlananian Qcahemy .5 QE. Zlliliplg Grier Q- O 0 00:00:00:o0:o0:o0:o 03020020 0:00:00:00:00:00:o 020020020 0:0020 0:0 v HERE is a great deal of ac- tivity, now a days, in every organization that has anything to do with art. If I thought that the result would be to make a lot of boys and girls turn their thoughts to art as a profession or means of live- lihood I should greatly regret it. But if your study of art leads you to discover what it is in the pic- tures, statues or poems that has made the artist both happy and famous you will not only add to your stockof useful knowledge but you will have discovered a great source of joy. just imagine the difference, for instance, in the pleasure two people get from listening to an opera or an orchestra one of them being the kind that can't whistle a tune and the other the kind that can play quite a lot of the evening's music when he gets home to his own piano. So it is with pictures. There are no beauties so magical as those in nature 5 but nature is so complex and so constantly before our eyes that we miss half its charm. But when the painter places on his canvas some single aspect of nature --holds it there and puts a frame around it-we are captivated by its beauty and say 'chow lovely that is! I never knew that old bit of the Don river was so good to look at. The artist has no easy time. Painting is not a good life for a lazy boy or girl. It is a life of thought in which you are always pursuing the unattainable, always experienc- ing a sense of defeat. I am not going to say it is not enjoyable. With a certain measure of success it is tremendously enjoyable. I wouldn't swap jobs with anyone, not even a Bank president. But take it from me, unless you get the most clear and unmistakable signs that you have an exceptional talent fand these come in the early 'teensl you had better just stick to the humble job that you have a bit of a natural gift for. All the great artists made marvel- ous pictures aud sculptures as young boys. Sir John Millais won a Silver medal at the Royal Academy School CEnglandD at nine years of age. Michael Angelo did very fine sculpture at fifteen. Bonning- ton was one of the great masters of British paintings and he died at twenty seven. And Keats, the poet-one of the greatest was little more than a boy when he wrote his greatest works. The younger Pitt was prime minister of England in his twenties. If you have a gift you are born with it 3 but that does not excuse you for being lazy about it. It is a sacred trust. Work in season to make the most of it. But if you are one of the larger crowd who shows no early signs of genius, try to find out what you really like as work for every day, and master every detail of it.

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TECH TATLER 35 0:00:00 00, 0 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:0 0:00:00:00:00:00:0 0:00 00 0 0? 0 0 ' 0 'f' dlibe Glbeamng of 2' 0:0 ' z0 'S' QEHUBUIHU an '0' 'z' 0 , :0 -.- 1152 Qrtbur ihsmzr .g. 0:0 0:0 0:0020 0:00:00:00:0 0:00:0 0z00:00:00:00:00z0 0:00:00:00:0 020020020010 0z00:0 VER the whole of this American Continent there is manifested every kind of an expression imaginative from that of the oldest civilization to the very recent development of the present day. There are records of ancient highways and peoples long since overgrown in jungle or buried be- neath the sands of the desert. Whole peoples have disappeared and the only evidence we have of their existence is the record of Art. Things that have been carved in stone and marble or wrought in metal, ornaments, and pottery, idols, bronze and gold ornament, weapons and ceremonial relics. The white man has conquered the ancient races and made them subject to the customs and laws of European tradition, the ancient altars have been destroyed and the people divested from their mode of life ownership. Aztecs, Incas, Toltecs, races lost in the mist of the ages. The Indian of the coast and the plains, the wood and jungles have nearly disappeared and we see there art only in museums. We believe now that these ancient peoples have something for us, that their arts of design, derived from their native environment, the forms of their mountains, trees, animals and birds are of interest to us because of the beauty of under- standing of their craftsmen. Something genuine in the form of earth and all living growth have still a great significance in molding the art of our own day. Art arises out of a definite need to create forms of beauty giving to the earthly images the power to sustain the spirit through all the stages of human existence. Thus in one age asavagedecorates his paddle or his weapons with strange devices of geometric forms or paints a prayer for rain on a piece of pottery, in an arid land. Either through fear of the un- known or to inspire fear in an enemy, these forms of beauty in design were created and they came down to us revealing their native origin. What we see in a museum of native art are not just curios-once they served the needs of man. Mankind always has gone to nature for sustenance finding so- lace in the woods and beauty in the trees -in rivers and the voices that speak through the storm or from the mountains. We are no longer in- spired by fear, because we walk securely, protected from wrath and superstition by our faith and feeling of safety. We still go to nature for beauty and sustenance but for another purpose than to propitiate angry gods or to ward off the evil spirits. The artist is the one-whether poet-painter-musician or sculp- tor who still creates for us the form of our environment, weaving the ma- gic of line, tone and colour into their creative expressions. Not merely for decoration or commercial purposes--to acclaim a superiority but as in the ancient days to prove that if we would be above the lower animals we must bring to nature affection and a desire to understand and to create, that beauty may not die. That is the plain duty and priv- elege of every artist - to produce- and the pleasure of every individua

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37 TLER 'TALES Nowwvuor-:vim -r u: Yo Twrrr I ill Mr. Tate,Cin geometry classb Where istmy poly gon ? Mees- Up the geome tree. Neville-taps on desk, pushes chair back and forth, mutters, etc, etc. Mr. Staples, Cannoyedl- VVhat is your name ? Neville-HNeville sir, Neville, rhymes with devil. U l U Miss I-Ietherington, Cto Cole- man wholyvas as usual talking to Walesl- Coleman what are you doing over there ? , Coleman-HLooking for school jokes. Miss I-leth.-- Well yo u sit down and leave Wales alone. U 1 I Mr. Wallen-HMees, in Arith- ' - CC 1 . metic, what does x signify P Mees-Er, uh, I don't know sir. ' ' M . W ll -H ' ' r a en Think now, Mees, where have you seen an x used ? Mees-UVVhy er, at the end of Nicoletti's letters, sir. I U C Mr. Langille-'UNOW watch the board closely and I'll run through it again. U O U Miss Worthington-- Use fac- inate in a sentence. Duckworth-HMy aunt has nine buttons on her dress, but she's so gat, that she can only fasten elg t. lVIr. Foley, fstressing the differ- ence between a rose and a modest violetl .-HNow a well dressed, lovely lady goes along the street, but is proud and greets nobody-that is the rose. Behind her goes a small creature with bowed headf, Lorne Burt-HThat's her hus- band. W 1' ll Mr. Stephen, fafter assigning severel pages of impositionl. HWhen you are in trouble, it would be fine to have a helping hand, wouldn't it. Class - 6 iYes' ' Mr. Stephen-HDO you know where to get that helping hand ? Class-UNO Mr. Stephen-UAt the end of your arm.', n . ' lvlr. Tate- What is a pro- tractor Fl' Lee-HA farm implement used instead of horses.', U l I M iss McLean - H O'Brien, whom would you rather be, Charlie Chaplin or Shakespeare F 0'Brien-HCharlie Chaplin. lyliss McLean -HWhy? O' Brien - Because S h a k e- speare is dead, t . Nliss l-Ietherington,Cto lylarlowl HOU est le panier F Marlow stands up, looks blankly around, grins sheepishly, and puts his chewing gum in the basket.