I was showing my mom some of my abstract art this week. She had some reactions to it. She would say ‘oh this one reminds me of riding through chaos’ and ‘this one reminds me of being lost on a journey.’
Those were not what they meant. But that’s ok.
It is what she saw in them, and it made me think… Everyone has their own unique perspective on things. Two people can get wildly different meanings from the same movie, book, or piece of art.
Even if I mean to say one thing with a picture, someone might interpret it another way.
It reminded me of the time I recommended Fahrenheit 451 to my Grandad. After he read it I asked him what he thought of it and if he learned anything. He grumbled and said “that governments start wars?” It was a completely different interpretation than what I had. His experiences shaped his interpretation. Just like our own biases and perspectives are formed throughout our lives.
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things” –Steve Jobs
When I open Instagram I’m always shaping my taste in art. I’ll be seeing all the cool things artists are doing. But none of that art really resonates deep within me. I just think “that looks cool” or “they are really very good at what they do.” “That’s a good technique” ~ which took sed artist years to train, gets lost under an everyday thought like ‘what’s my cat doing?’
It’s not cause most of the art I see is bad~it’s not. It’s that I don’t have a deep connection with it. My experiences don’t align with what the artist is saying and it may not have struck a chord within me.
“We are not all connected. We are bags of skin. We are all separate bags of thinking skin.” -A.L. Kennedy, Scottish writer, actor, and standup comedian.
That quote pretty much says what I’m sayin’ and pretty well too, but it is a little sour. Here’s a lighter quote.
“Love is the substance of life. Everything is connected in love, absolutely everything.” -Julia Cameron, American teacher, author, artist, poet, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, composer, and journalist best known for her book The Artist’s Way.
Though we’re all separate and have our own opinions we share many things from across all walks of life. We all enjoy and dislike things; I can’t speak for everyone except “…in this world nothing is certain, except death and taxes” -Ben Franklin, (though the quote was used by others even earlier) to put it bluntly.
Im trying to get better at explaining my art so people can know what it’s intended meaning is. What/why any single artwork is about is seeming more important with an abundance art floating around. It’s refreshing when someone can express a similar feeling I’ve had, in art. Like when that song lyric hits just right or that go to song/playlist is just ready to be queued up. I want to share shared feelings of the human condition that others see and feel, something that’s maybe been repressed, but something that is there.
This week I just worked on my print. I got some good sessions in and I’m making good progress. Slowly but surely. Hopefully I’ll be halfway done by the end of the week (or further.) Until then have a good week.
Bye
P.S. A thought that kinda aligns with this week’s newsletter: One can tell a lot about someone by their art they have hanging up on their wall. Like one can tell something about someone by the way they dress. If one shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover why do they make the cover of the book so about the book.
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