d’arista’s students remember
January 23, 2003 – Ival, who studied under D’Arista in 1973…
… each three hour class at BU for senior painters ended with many of us saying, “this is the first painting I ever did like this.” I have three paintings from these sessions that I always will keep. He forced us to reach beyond our self-imposed limitations for something else – opening doors and allowing us to see the infinite possibilities available for our work. …
This page is turning into a fine memorial. Keep ’em coming, folks.
March 24, 2003 – Lowell Gilbertson studied with D’Arista at American University in the early eighties…
…Once I went to his office because I was having some trouble with another teacher. I didn’t want to be impolitic, so I said “I don’t think I agree with his teaching philosophy”. D’arista took a drag on his cigarette and said, “I didn’t know he had one.”
…he said… “Let’s face it. When we paint, we hallucinate, no?”
He cut off half of his left index finger on a saw once. Someone rushed him to the hospital and the surgeons spent 5 hours attaching the finger. He was awake. He lectured them on the art of Early Tuscany. He later said he was disappointed because they didn’t keep up their end of the conversation.
Since this posting, Lowell has labored greatly to produce a terrific site dedicated to Robert D’Arista.
April 9, 2003 – Joe Carrigg studied under BD at BU 1984-85
…He gave us this assignment of “light announcing the room”, looking at how the light was falling on different objects in the room and creating the space that way. It was a great assignment and I have the painting that I did from it up in my living room.
He also said to me at a certain point, “Don’t ruin it. You should stop painting on it soon.”
I said, “Now that you’ve said that, I’m going to have a hard time getting back into it.”
“Ah,” he said,”See how the light announces the room.” And this allowed me to get back into it….
He addressed different people in the class in these descriptive titles of obscure details he knew about them. I remember two. To Norman Wilson, a retired dentist in our class, he said, “Dentist?” Brianne Pettite, he addressed by the name of her hometown, “Scituate?” … One woman in my class whose name is Anne Marie, he called Maria Therese. He knew he was wrong but she was charmed by it.
The last time I saw him I was ringing him out at Utrecht Art Supply. I thought he looked better and he said he felt better.
April 16, 2003 – Anne Salemme of Boston studied under D’Arista at American University in the early seventies.
the last time i saw him … i was telling him about a bad experience i had showing my drawings to an art gallery person in new york. he said, with i think genuine concern, ‘you know, it’s really a shame you just lack the killer instinct to show off.’ he was so right. i’ve been working in computers for years, and just yesterday heard in my annual performance review ‘well…no one knows what you do. you should be more visible!’ almost 30 years after mr. d’arista nailed the problem.
… i loved the way he used to drop ashes on our drawings during the critiques …. we learned not to be attached to the end product. the important part was the process. …
May 2, 2004 – From ex-student, Judy Laue …
His classes at The American University were overflowing with students. Even his students that had graduated would come back to take his classes. I took copious notes of his lectures, mostly word for word. Here are some notes from one class…:
RDA – Drawing: The Caricature
“Conciseness is important in drawing, speaking, telling jokes. Economy of what is necessary. You see a reversal in this kind of drawing. Instead of finding likeness, you make a jump with your mind and decide what is there before you start drawing. You are not finding as you draw. Stare first and see what is there and what it will involve. [Professor D’Arista then drew a figure consisting of a large hat with a tiny body). A hat person – I’ve decided in my head first. But you must not put up a preconceived idea. In algebraic expression – V is twice as old as Jane. In three years, Jane will be 1/3 as old, etc. (writing this equation for the class: V=2J (X=24)]. We use a formula to find solutions. In drawing, you are surprised at your solution frequently. If that happens authentically, then art becomes a cognitive experience.”
Note: V was his nickname for a woman in the class who always wore a hat that had a big “V” on the front of it.) (There was also a woman in the class named Shi (pronounced “She”), that he referred to as “Her”. Her was a good sport and found this to be very funny.