Layers of Meaning. 

This is what happens when I let the drawing I'm doing tell me where it wants to go. Some things have a mind of their own.  This was one of them.  It's called "Vessel". Oil on canvas, 18" x 24".

One Flesh

Swimming with Sharks

 

 

The Subjectivity of the arts

The Beholder

Art speaks to each one of us in different ways. When we view a painting, listen to music, or read something, how we perceive it, read into it, and what we take away from it depends on our background. It depends upon who we are. It is subjective.  And the reason it is subjective is because everyone has an opinion on it whether or not they know anything about it.

Subjective -vs. – Standards

One of the very first things I learned during my practice teaching was that one should have a very good reason for assigning letter grades to each student’s art assignment.  It was very easy to “eyeball” it as each paper was put into a category (stack on the floor) – “Wonderful” (A), “eh-Ok” (C), and “Yikes!” (D and under), but when that student asks me the day those were passed back why they received the grade they did, I couldn’t just say “Well, LOOK at it!” I needed to point out exactly where they went wrong, be it composition, center of interest, perspective, line, light source, and show them how it could be improved upon.

Subjective: Adj. placing excessive emphasis on one's own moods, attitudes, opinions, in relation, relative, in comparison.

If we use those words, then the next logical question is: Compared to what?  My college roommate and I were, in our own way, competitive. We were education majors, she in mathematics, I in art. One quarter we took the very same class with the same professor, only at different times of the day. At the end of the grading system we found that Rose, my roommate, was ahead by only a handful of points. But, since she was in a different class with a different group of students, her grade turned out to be a “B”.  I must have been in a dumb class, for I ended up with an “A”.  That is what grading on the curve does –it does away with absolute standards and there is no longer a “plumb line” for comparison.  What we are left with is each other to for comparison.  That is a slippery slope. We now have what we have in the arts.  

subjective = personal

Fact: no one ever takes up math or science as a hobby. Creating art can be personal and it makes us feel good to create something.  Note here that I didn’t say copy. The words create and copy mean two entirely different things. To create an image from the recesses of one’s mind is nothing short of magical. Art expresses who we are as individuals. Art is also used in therapy.  But we must also keep in mind that “therapy art” is not on par with a Chagall and perhaps it is best not to be displayed in public.

I believe the term artist has been used loosely in reference to Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock.  I will admit that perhaps their contribution to art has been to open the publics eye to new concepts, perhaps even usher in a new era of art, but at the same time I ask, are the principles of art being suspended for them? Where is the composition, rhythm, movement? Please, someone, tell me where it is in the middle of that mess?  I’m referring to Pollock.  As my mother was often quoted as saying “a monkey could have done that”. Honestly, Pollock’s work looks like someone just threw paint all over the place.  To be kind, it’s a great START.  But a background does not make a painting.  I feel it’s just hoopla – another version of the Emperor’s New Clothes.

The principles of design still need to be there, but I can say that I do understand what Kandinsky was trying to do, having read his book “Point and Line to Plane”. Still, I may be simplistic in my view, but I feel there is something inherently wrong if an artist needs to write a book to explain their art work.

Why Artists Create

When I was in high school, the art teacher would begin every year with reading this list of “Why Artists Create”.  I’d like to end this blog with that list.

12.  To paint a pretty picture
11.. To make extra money by selling trite objects at craft shows.
10.. For decorating a room.
  9.  To get attention by shocking viewers.
  8.  To show their skill in duplicating nature.
  7.  To make a statement about a political or moral situation.
  6.  To express emotions through art forms.
  5.  To see the world in a different way.
  4  To make the invisible visible.
  3.  Therapeutic quality - the working process is more important than the end result.
  2.  To manifest their inner being.
  1.  The inner urge to create which cannot be suppressed.