VICKI'S WEB PAGE:INTRO



Ciao! Welcome to my web page. I'd like to spin off a few words about why I teach Art History. I started off as an English major, and after finally getting my first B.A. in English I saved enough money to get myself to Europe. There I came face to face with some of the western world's greatest works of art. I had taken a few Art History courses "just for fun" but now I realized this is it. This is what I want to share with people, this great art experience. Statues that reach out and grab you by your soul strings. Paintings that laugh and sing and create whole worlds in your mind's eye. Architecture that makes you gasp in its presence. Here is something we can all, as human beings, be proud of--our art.

I came back from my three month art binge and started all over again. Another B.A. and M.A. later I began teaching Art History 201, 202 and 203 here at BC and got sucked in.. Turning people on to Art is my goal and along with that making people feel good about being human. We, as a species, do some very foul things. We still "solve" problems by war and violent acts, we still poison the environment, but in turn we also create art and to create is to be Godlike.

Teaching this subject for so many years has made me so rich---not in terms of money, but in seeing my students come back year after year and sharing their great art experiences with me. Be it returning to their home town museums with a new appreciation of art or travelling abroad and seeing the David for the first time or climbing Notre Dame of Paris or getting lost in a Miro. The excitement they feel, that joy of discovery-that's my true reward. I feel so blessed to have a job I love. How many people can't wait to go to work each day?

Since 1989, I have been leading with the help of my husband Bill Scott, small art history tour groups to Italy and Greece. It is a perfect opportunity to share these experiences first hand with my students and their friends and family. And its the best summer job I've ever had.

I've often been asked "who is your favorite artist?" That's almost impossible for me to answer. Usually I'll say, "whoever I'm lecturing about that day..." but I can narrow it down some. I of course, love the Italian Renaissance artists, particularly Michelangelo, Botticelli and Lippi. Of the 20th century Surrealists, Rene Magritte and Leonor Fini to name a few. I also like paintings and sculpture that are somewhat mysterious, even dark. German expressionest paintings, such as Beckman, and realists paintings from Andrew Wyeth. I love Picasso--everything the man touched turned to gold. The symbolists such as Redon and Moreau... okay,okay, I'll stop...I knew I should't even start there are so many, and I havn't even mentioed THE GREEKS...EEEK...THE GREEKS...we'd have none of this if it wasn't for them and the Romans. The Pantheon in Rome, the Parthenon in Athens, the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople....the list grows as I sit here. If I had to pick one master art work to hang in my home, I would choose anything by Pierre Bonnard and mayby slip in one nice Brancusi, the "Bird in Space"--yeah, over there by the window to pick up the light.

SYLLABUS/ VICKI'S BIO/ THREE GRACES TOUR

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This website was originally created by Christina Meyer in the BC Web Authoring Program.