Enjoying Works of Art: One Artist’s Way

Why do YOU enjoy viewing art?

“I” enjoy the visual adventure art provides as an artist, and as an appreciator. In large part it’s who I am. Some people say art is everywhere. Some consider art in museums as fine art.  An artist “may” create art with an eye for you, the viewer. The world-wide web provides expanded access and blurs the lines between fine art and cliché. The art marketplace is vast and sometimes focused on more personalized tastes/interests like home/office decor. Art can be purchased from galleries, individuals, and across massive retail markets and at a wide range of prices.  Fine art, original art, art for sale, master artist, and many more keywords populate the web and point the searcher to the multitude of images and interpretations. The viewing public may set its own standards of value.

How I sort through our saturated world of images?

“The visual world can provide a special essence if allowed.”

“Eyes First” is my conclusive statement, as an artist, about making and viewing art. What I choose to see leads to beginning to make a work - image then idea. My eyes lead and help me filter through the mental and physical process to complete the artwork. Sound simple? Isn’t that what all visual artists do? And why does that matter? My approach is like but not identical to traditional direct observation.  A realist artist simultaneously views the subject or object while executing the painting. For me even when painting from memory accurately visualizing the image and the painting together remains a priority. The challenge is to realize just how memory/imagination and direct observation are different. Your memory of an image is a modification of it. You lose visual acuity. How does that matter? The interplay of your eyes and mind is the core of artmaking. Artistic styles use that interplay differently. It is fertile ground in the search for freshness in making art.  

Eyes, “take a break” when making art! Allow ideas and theories to take the lead. “That’s not for me.”

My experience of art has been through the modernist lens. Modernist thinking gave artists working in western European traditions permission to modify artmaking and thus art products. They were influenced by artist from around the world - for example African and Asian art. New styles of experimentation and concepts became norms. Conceptual approaches gained dominance. The artist’s hand, signs of craftsmanship, are minimized, eliminated or even maximized. Some artists have invited the viewer to complete the art by participating – experiential art – a far different interplay between the mind, eyes and other sensory experiences. When visiting a museum or exploring available art online the viewer chooses visual participation and decides how much time to spend.

How do you engage with art? - the artist and the viewer.

A viewer’s answer may be that art is “what I like” and that is enough. If you collect art, you may expect more.  You may want to be speculative in your purchase. Whereas artists have a different point of view about the value of their work they must nonetheless engage in a question of value to produce it.  Artmaking starts with an open inquiry. Why do it? They may ask “how good is what I do”? An easy not so critical answer for an artist is to say that it does not matter. “He does art for himself, for his own reasons.” I believe making art over time becomes an unavoidable quandary and that’s what an artist seeks – visual exploration and you’re caught up in it. You must be self-critical/ self-reflective. Many artists set up elaborate rituals to work often in isolation requiring intense concentration and focus. Artmaking can be both simple and complex but inevitably artmaking requires intent. Artists in the end answer themselves - and also how others respond.

How to start making art. How to start viewing art. So many options.

Artmaking is a search. Viewing is a search. Artists have followed many avenues in that search - direct observation, memory/ imagination, emotional responses to life experiences, reinterpretation of knowledge/understanding from various disciplines, chance occurrences from surrounding forces, and now, “artificial intelligence” among others. Artistic styles and movements are often used to define art by category – the “ism” and the many subcategories - realism, surrealism, impressionism, expressionism, abstract-expressionism, conceptual, etc.  No matter, viewers participate through visual interaction.

Where to look? The same places - with the same senses

Inevitably painting involves an interplay among disciplines of knowledge/awareness- spiritual belief/religion, and evidential/empirical and theoretical (literature, science, mathematics, psychology, music, etc.) Modernism also brought psychomotor activity to the forefront in the “western” art tradition to allow unpredictability to contribute to the work. Many approaches and instincts are now shared worldwide as artists seek to produce work through their lenses.

There’s too much there.

Our world sometimes seems overwhelmingly and uselessly complex. When it’s all said and done the world engaged by our eyes is profusely dense - so much so that taking the time to explore it without distraction is a challenge.  Can traditional painting expose fresh imagery yet discovered through our visual senses?

“Eyes First” is my way to search. “The eyes are (more than) the mirror of the soul”. Spend time to search!