After looking through his writings I got a very vivid picture of his art practice and how, rather than being studio practice, it is social practice where he allows himself the freedom to do work that is not so tied to the commercial art world. Some of the things that really stood out to me, and obviously did to him, was an undergraduate class he was in. The first day the class was told to pick an outdoor physical activity to do during class time for the rest of the semester. Harrel decided to walk on railroad tracks and became very good at it by the time they met together at the end of the semester. Of all the classes he took, he remembers this one better than all the lectures, exams, assignments, and discussions that were part of his other classes.
I was also impressed by what he said about teaching; "Most of what I do as an art professor now is based not my art education but instead on my farming education."Harrel spent some time doing a farm apprenticeship following graduate school which turned into a very important learning experience. I'm also reminded of something he mentions, which we also discussed in sculpture class last semester. The basic premise is that our education system is not set up for teaching as well as it could be. I find there to be solid logic behind this and agree with his philosophy in many ways.
