Peoples’ Previous Art Experiences Alisa Beck Northern Michigan University Survey Results

Reasons for conducting survey  My own curiosity  Learn the technology  For a grade

The population  The population of this survey represents friends and family of myself. Also, all of the people who participated in this survey are above the age of eighteen.  I sent the survey to over one hundred and fifty participants. Fifty-eight participated in the allowed time frame.  When participants were asked to type in their own answer, many words were misspelled. Although they were phonetically correct.

The results The majority of my population have taken or are currently in some type of college level art course.

The results Past media used in art experiences was surprising. Half of population have only used clay. Believe it or not, clay and paper are the least expensive materials in the art room.

The results  When asked how often a participant went to see visual arts, the answers occasionally and seldom ranked highest.  When asked if artistic ability was mature at birth, over 90% of the population disagreed.  When asked if art should have some type of message, interpretation, or subject, each option had equal amounts of votes.  When asked to write the first artist they could think of, the most popular response was Vincent van Gogh.  Leondardo daVinci, Pablo Picasso, and Michelangelo closely followed.

The results  Philosophy of art  Art is an important means of self expression and should be practiced by everyone, even if they may not be viewed as having "talent.”  Way beyond my abilities.  I believe art is a passion, a lifestyle, who you are. If people are not passionate about it, then they have no business trying to be an artist. Art can portray any type of feeling that you are experiencing at that current time, it can express what you cant use words for. Art is very powerful and should not be taken for granted.  I believe that art is about the expression of a feeling or idea and a connection between two people; the artist and the viewer sharing a moment of synchronicity.  14 participants did not answer the question.  Complementary Colors  Colors on opposite ends of the color wheel, or if you know the three primary colors, take two and mix them. the color you get by mixing, and the remaining unmixed color are complimentary.  Colors that compliment each other. For example, red and yellow.  Colors of ROY G BIV  33 correct 25 incorrect

The results  “Do you own a work of art?”  This is kind of an opinionated question because a work of art has different meaning to different people. Therefore work of art needs to be defined. Is it a painting, illustration, 3-d form, a music piece, a written piece? Is it your own or someone elses? How do you define good art? Well if there where no rules and we ignored everything I just asked then yes I own a work of art. My own works of art.  Umm... Not really... I'm a work of art...If that counts :)  Well, that depends on how you define a work of art. I have several hand painted Happy Chef plates with my kitchen decorations, but I wouldn't hang them in the Louvre.  I don't own any art by any other artist but I have art of my own that I did in high school or in a couple college courses...  No, I do have several Indian Art works, by contemporary artists. They were purchased in Scottsdale, AZ  About 3/4 agreed they have some form of art.

What I would change  Several things:  Questions:  Do you believe that artistic ability is mature enough from birth or that it needs to be developed? Should end after birth.  When you think of an artist, whom do you think of first? Should include visual artists only.  Do you own a work of art? If so, please describe it. Should include According to your philosophy of art…  Open ended questions:  Hard to spell for many.  Hard to interpret altogether  Population  I would have given this to many others with different environmental backgrounds.  More time to get more participants.