Why I have to paint: The importance of learning through one’s fingers in a digital world

WHY does someone learn to paint in an electronic age? Why do some people make laborious efforts with intaglio creating painstakingly similar and static images, when one could do it so much faster on th e computer? Why does someone go to college and pay $20 ,000 a year to learn to weld a sculpture? Why is it that when I am working, really working, time isn 't? We, educators and artists, understand why. We understand through our experience and connection with the arts, with creation itself. Part of creation, part of the human soul is engaged with those personal, haptic aspects of creation, blending bookmaking with desktop publishing and printmaking with electronic imagery. Part of the true joy of creation comes from the physical engagement with materials. And part of it is the unique connection with how ideas can be expressed with one specific medium. We are experiencing now a rare pause in the rush for technology, one of the many points where we will recognize some of the values we have built into our practice of art and design education. The insertion of computers into education has triggered an evaluation of curricula in many fields, including art and design. Many currently question the value of the overwhelming use of