Between brushstrokes

grantor: University of TorontoThis thesis explores the fundamental experiential connections between visual art and science. The author links the academic text to multiple visual essays in an exploration of the holistic teaching and learning methodologies in visual art pedagogy. An examination of the educational philosophies of Dewey and Steiner supports the focus on experience as education. The philosophies of Eisner, Goudy, Dewey, London, Arnheim and Wallschlaeger provide a foundation for the overall structure of the separate concepts of visual art. The inclusion of visual essays and the hermeneutical mode in which they are sequenced follows the theories and examples of Sontag, Barthes, Berger, Silvers and Wilde. Creativity studies conducted by Csikszentmihalyi and the theories of invention in science investigated by Kuhn and Judson connect the creative process in visual art to science. Sheen, Feynman, D'Arcy Thompson and Capra offer a perspective on the learning, teaching and evaluation methodologies and philosophy in the area of science, particularly physics, botany and geometry. The examination of these theories as background, combined with narrative experiences and the exploratory visual component, draw out conclusions and implications about the untapped potential of visual art in education.Ph.D