Lillian Scalzo Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Lillian Scalzo 20
A: That's all I did, really.
Q: What about things like perspective and that kind of art. Are there
techniques for teaching someone how to interpret, how to put this on
paper, you know, how to get this perspective?
A: There are techniques, but perspective and the mechanics of art really
count very, very little.
Q: But you can teach this, right?
A: Yes, you can teach it. But I think when you teach it you kill the
personality of the person. The person tightens up and becomes so conscious
of doing perspective or something in that order that the person is not
himself any more and he is not interpreting what he sees. What you
actually teach is to teach the person how to see. Before a person studies,
many of them that come into your class never have looked at anything.
They don't know what a leaf actually looks like until you bring in a leaf
and show them how beautiful it is, the line it has and that every leaf is
different from the other leaf, no matter if it comes from the same tree
or not. That even a blade of grass, the way it curves is just beautiful.
And one blade of grass or one line on a paper is beautiful. It doesn't
have to have perspective. Perspective is a necessity if you're doing
commercial art and requires something of that type. But when you're
teaching a class who is going to be nothing but painters you don't have
to do anything like that. What you have to do is to teach them how to
see, to use their eyes.
Q: I see. But if the student wanted to learn, you know, if they, in
essence, had a still life or something and they needed or felt like they
wanted a perspective in there you could say, "Well, you can do it this,
that, or the other way."
A: Well, you teach them how to see that one object is behind the other
object, but you don't just actually teach them perspective any more.
Because if the thing is out of perspective, like a great many of [Jean
Charles] ~azin's paintings, the table is tipped. They are not in perspective,
but they are magnificent paintings.
q: Right. Okay. All right, now, you had some of your paintings about
New Salem that was in a publication called Ford Times? --
A: Yes.
Q: Can you tell me how this came about? Were you contacted for this?
--
A: Oh, yes. Those were the first ones that I had done for Ford Times.
--
Ford Times really looks up an artist in a certain district and they
contact the artist to maybe do an eating place that is famous for a
certain recipe. Have you ever noticed the recipes in the eating places
in the back?
Q: Right.