Sistine Chapel and its Live Models

It was a pleasure this morning to see the Sistine Chapel exhibit in Irving Mall, and also to notice some true-to-life details not really visible at a distance.

These hands have eaten some hammer blows — check out those knuckles.
Besides the really nice sense of movement here, check out that Cherub going “hey God! Imma tickle his foot…”
See the inside of that dude’s foot (emphasis, red oval)? That heavy musculature on the inside of the foot is a classic sign of somebody who collapses their arches and shoves their body weight onto their big toe. EVERY person I have worked with who “had flat feet” showed this excess foot musculature as a necessary compensation for lack of proper arch use.

It’s “inside baseball, but still, really subtle stuff that shows Michelangelo was paying real attention to his models. If you can see this exhibit, it’s WELL worth your time.

Form Grants (pain-free!) Function

Just spent a good chunk of the morning with a professional artist, and I have to say, I want to (kindly, gently, figuratively) punch “well known local art-education school” right in the nose.

That’s because the artist is in constant pain trying to work, and the reason this person is in constant pain is because the training institution didn’t check the students for proper form and body usage. Being an artist while rotating your wrist by generating your power to do so right at the wrist joint, rather than by turning from the elbow (to rotate the bones in your forearm and let your little joints and muscles rest/relax) is a really bad idea.

Ask a typist: “good form or you break.”
Ask a laborer: “good form or you break.”
Ask a musician: “good form or you break.”
Ask a (pro) cook: “good form or you break.”
Ask a weightlifter: “good form or you break (fast).”

It’s the same thing for art. It’s the same thing for everything. The better you use yourself, no matter how “obviously physical” the task, the less likely you are to find yourself in pain and struggling to do what it is that you love to do.

If you love doing something, it’s worth doing it well (and not being in pain). If pain is stopping you from doing what you love, let alone endangering your career, reach out. To me, or to somebody else, so we can help you get back to “doing the thing” with less strain and more joy.

Building Blocks

Helped a gent improve his judo roll/somersault this morning by helping him feel how on one side he’s able to flex forwards while rotating his shoulders, and on his other side he had no idea how to do that. Visible improvement in a guy’s forward roll in five painless minutes flat. I’ll link it up from Youtube once I have it online.

If you’re an athlete or musician or dancer, THIS IS IMPORTANT:
“Techniques” are not fundamentals. Flexion, extension, rotation, translation throughout your joints as a cooperative human whole — THIS is fundamentals. The better you can coordinate yourself, the better your techniques will get… even if you’re barely practicing them.