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When Larry Young was growing up in Nashville,
Tennessee, he ran with a gang of rough compatriots. "There
was drugs, alcohol, all that," said Young, now 55, with his
gentle southern drawl.
Back then, a love of highbrow art was certainly not among Young's
interests.
What changed all that was his decision, in his 20s, to attend The
Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
He didn't go there for the art. "I went there because it was
a party school," he said.
Young's first teacher was an old German man oozing with a kind of
culture foreign to this guy from Tennessee. "I had never been
exposed to culture or the arts, and here I met this man steeped in
it," said Young, who now lives in Metuchen. "What he
did, he introduced me to European culture and the great works of
the masters and the idea of the evolution of consciousness. I
began to wake up to myself."
For most of the next 14 years, Young attended a once-a-week class
with his teacher, a longtime mentor for about 15 of those original
students in Young's first class.
Young was exposed to many things that likely would have surprised
his old crowd back in Nashville, things such as classical music
and the philosophy behind artistic works.
"He shaped me as an artist," Young said of his teacher.
Now Young's life is about returning that favor.
Since his days in Fort Lauderdale, Young has worked as a graphic
artist. He also has developed an interest in teaching, in sharing
with others what art can do to transform a life. Over a decade
ago, Young began teaching at a Waldorf school in Chestnut Ridge,
NY, just over the New Jersey border.
At a Waldorf school, a child's ability to draw, paint, sculpt,
knit, sing, dance are looked at as natural abilities, not extras
in life for a chosen few, Young said.
From Young's experience teaching children, as well as his own
experiences both growing up and learning, Young created a
traveling exhibit and art workshops drawn from an underlying
belief that the arts can provide an antidote to violence.
Next month the artist will conduct a three-day workshop at his
home studio, Phoenix Arts Center in Metuchen, to try to shape
others interested in art. The class, "Art as an Antidote to
Violence," includes both hands-on artistic exercises, as well
as discussions on the philosophy of art and how it can help
prevent violence.
"There will be as much deceit and criminality in the world as
there is lack of art," wrote Waldorf founder Rudolf Steiner,
words that have driven Young for years.
"By gradually eliminating the arts from the curriculum and
focusing primarily on logical/mathematical thinking, our schools
have created generations of children with underdeveloped skills,
such as analysis of the whole, creativity, sensitivity and
empathy," Young writes in his promotional materials for
"Art as an Antidote."
"Whenever people feel uncreative, bored and are unable to
solve life's problems, they become confused, frustrated and
angry," Young writes. "And when there is frustration and
anger, there is often aggressive, anti-social behavior.
On a recent afternoon, Young, a tall man with twinkling blue eyes
and a short, gray beard, posed for a photographer in a classroom
of the art studio he shares with his wife and colleague, Kathie.
The pair co-founded the Phoenix Arts Center, a large house on Main
Street whose upstairs serves as the couple's home.
The two met at a friend's house in Hopewell, New Jersey seven
years ago and married shortly afterward.
The pair started teaching together six years ago. They created the
Phoenix Arts Center in 1994, and named it after the mythological
bird that dies and resurrects itself. They now teach about 40
students.
Two years ago, Young quit teaching at the Waldorf School. "I
made him quit, because of the commuting, and so that he could go
on with his work," said his wife. "We've been together
24 hours a day for the last two years. That's what I was looking
for, my parents were like that."
In their home, Mrs. Young shows off some of her husband's
watercolors. They are mostly images of faces, one of Young's
favorite subjects to put on paper; behind every face is a story
from which Young is writing a semi-autobiographical screenplay.
Young also has made a film involving children and art which
examines such topics as illiteracy, parental abuse, drug addiction
and violence. The film will be shown as part of his traveling
exhibit on art, education and violence.
In the August workshop, which Young stresses is not just for
artists, the focus is on "making people more aware of the
arts, and do we need to have it in our lives today?"
For Young, the answer is a resounding yes. |
