I created the course- Psychology of Art- as a summer online-course in 2005. I taught it from the Chautauqua Institute and our family cabin on an island in northern Wisconsin where I was surrounded by my uncle’s paintings, grandfather’s woodcarvings, and grandmother’s collection of craftwork. With a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Chicago, I was teaching and running my research lab from 1979-1986 at Roosevelt University. As a faculty member I was entitled to free tuition for two courses per semester. I took art history courses, and one studio course. I spent many Wednesday afternoons with the chair of the Art Department, touring Chicago’s galleries. At the end of a long day on my feet at scientific meetings or Habitat for Humanity projects, I would often find myself standing for the evening in an art museum or gallery. With an undergraduate background in philosophy and general psychology, armed with Ted Cohen’s seminal course on aesthetics, a few art pieces collected on a student budget, a laboratory scientist’s interest in fabrication, and studying the visual system in cats, I stumbled. My roommate and I stumbled on five oil paintings and a steel etching in fancy frames being discarded by a local
I have misplaced some of the course materials. But here is the syllabus
RickRayfield 