The art of the beholder

My father was a painter, a very good painter who crossed many styles and mediums over his 70+ year career. His strength was in landscapes (no matter the technique) but, his abstract work is where I think he was exceptional.

Abstract art is like jazz music, many can mimic but few can play very well and the audience is similar, few have the imagination involved to not only listen, but hear what is being said. There is one piece of work of my dad's that tears my heart out yet, most observers will feel nothing at all, no matter how long they search.

The thing with art is that it is not just a creation of the artist, it is one from the audience and as the pretentious folk guess at the meaning and symbolism provided by the artist, the true connoisseur is an artist themselves. The art observed becomes its own palette and the audience is invited to pick up a mental brush and get to work. When it comes to art, what is meant by the artist is irrelevant in comparison to what is painted by the viewer.

Humans however are not adapted for art, they look at the lines and smudges on the page delivered by a small child and ask, "what is it?" without ever spending the time to drink it in and let their mind wander. They are looking to evaluate it, not appreciate it for what it is, the mind of their little child expressed visually for them to see. To see inside the mind of a child is to see potential itself, something most adults flitter away like autumn leaves in the wind.

We want to be right, we want to evaluate what we see and judge the artist on what we took out of it but, we are scared to be free, we are scared to create our own work of art through observation, perhaps fearful of what we may find. Maybe as we age it is too uncomfortable to be like that child and let our mind be known, even in the privacy of our own head.

Too many artists are trying to get their point across, spending too much time explaining, not enough time creating their mind to become the paints for the audience to then use and create again. The power of art is in the ability to evoke emotion and inspire an action. Whether it be a political statement or a a social movement, the goal is to get movement, change, a new course set.

In most, a work of art will do little else than calm a mind, look pretty on a wall or be a talking piece because of its price. But, for the true artists in the audience, it could be the catalyst for their greatest works, force them to confront the hurdles of their life and drive them to find a way over, around or through if needs be.

Art is the randomness of the universe, the gene deformity that drives evolution and creates whole new paths of opportunity and discovery and one piece ignored by all can be instrumental for one and create a reaction so strong, it changes the world. An apple falling from a tree that leads on to the redefinition of the collective understanding of the universe and all the fractalled branches onward from that point.

Stop analyzing what is meant by the work and start discovering what the work means to you. It could just be a pretty thing on a wall, a few word that make you smile and reminisce or, it could tear you in two and make you whole again at the same time. There is art in us all, whether thought as an artist or not. Art stops when our ability to create stops and when that happens, the analysis will already be too late.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]