"Flow" (detail) oil on wood 24" X 36"
About Noll Art
Artist
Art is a bubbling cauldron of possibilities supported by a tripod of fine art, illustration, and graphic design. The fire under the cauldron is fueled by current historic circumstance, the cultural convulsions of now, and the gaseous winds of global civilizations, past and present. Visually anything is up for grabs, but please alter it enough to avoid copyright infringement.
A lucky suburban kid, I grew up in the 1960s, the golden age of Pop Art, Poster Art, and Graphic Design. It was a treat for the eyes of youth, filled with trippy typography and extreme color, combining surreal imagery with original illustration. Though the aesthetic of its appeal is forever bonded with adolescence, the influence is lasting. I see myself as a pop artist whose work often has an attention getting graphic element.
Un-Common Core with Ray Noll
Love At First Sight - oil on canvas 14' X 20"
Beyond teaching the skills for visual language, art education can guide students to recognize and understand the global symbolism they will encounter. Art education can integrate across the curriculum to visually connect new and prior knowledge. World history and distant cultures come alive through art. In art class, students examine the creation and purpose of different works of art and the cultural forces, which shape design and use. The study of symbolism in both form and color enables students to gain insight into visual metaphor and communication. As an educator, my purpose is to help students comprehend the concepts that will increase their ability to excel within a rapidly changing, highly visual, global society.
During my career as an art instructor I have been fortunate to teach all ages. From K through 12, university and graduate students, as well as adults through continuing education. My oldest student was 89. I recognized in him the same level of frustration as my 5th graders in trying to draw realistcally. There is no magic solution for improvement other than perserverance and practice. Or become an abstractionist—but they have a visual code as well.
Educator
High school ceramics lesson on coiled pottery using Pre-Columbian Funerary Urns as an example..
Writer
The three great languages of human expression are music, art, and the written word. Music is the invisible sound that defines us as a species with art being the visual to the audio. Writing is the flexible glue in this triad. It can be as abstract as art or as precise as any given note of music. Words are a paint brush to render a scene, a mood, or a journalistic description, who, what, when, and where. Add why? for mystery.
Journalism is a great place to start honing writing skills. It teaches word usage with an emphasis on the leaness of language in order to provide a clear picture of a particular situation. It is the flight deck for punchy prose.
Time is an ally in perfecting any craft. High school and newspaper articles flower into magazine submissions, poetry, and books. One man's creative voice echoes in the unending media din.
My legacy is that of a whimsicle scribe, recording these times, smiling like the Fool On The Hill. I exist to draw and write using my bemused perspective to describe our self-important world spinning round and round in the dead darkness of space. My gift to the future is training others, to make their own original mark, on this crazy, magnificent planet.
Initiation Rites available on Amazon
Life is War - from the Benin Bronzes pen & ink 9" X 12"
One of twenty-five pen & ink illustrations for Initiation Rites
Etruscan Banquet - (detail) color pencil, red pen, & tempra paint on 9" X 12" bristol
