Ever walked through an art gallery? I did a few summers ago, when I had the opportunity to visit the Vancouver Art Gallery that I used to frequent on field trips as a child. Art has changed a lot since then. Yes, there are still some of the old paintings I remember, exhibits of artists long gone, but there are new exhibits - interactive 3 dimensional things. I walked into a boxed room to listen standing in a specific spot while balls zing past me on all sides hitting the four walls and bouncing away. We strapped ourselves into a harness and then moved around tethered in odd places to the floor to feel the effect of the pull. Odd things - focused on different senses than sight.
The visual art form has also changed - short films with surround sound to enhance the experience, a stack of tiny pots and pans placed artfully in a cordoned off corner, an intricate welded metallic creation add to the traditional sculptures, carvings and canvases on display.
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. - Pablo Picasso
So what is the balance for the artist? How does one judge what they show to others, and what either gets reinvented and transformed (if one is feeling inspired) or gets tossed aside in the pile of attempts and experiments (that is a part of the learning process but ultimately tucked away never to be seen). My wonderful Artist Community in Tumbler Ridge was sharing paintings we had done recently and our "ready to transform" images. We worked through a series of fun little projects where an unfinished or practice image got reinvented into something new using stencils and negative painting. In a previous post I showed an image called "Reclaimed Joy" in the post titled For the Birds using an image painted originally painted during an emotional time and turning the darkness into colour and beauty.
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. - Henry Ward Beecher
Art is subjective right? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - an art expert will turn his nose up at someone's proudest accomplishment while a parent will exclaim with admiration over a child's first scribbles. And the thing is - they are both incredible works of achievement. Learning control over a pen is as challenging as learning later how to master an art form. So what does one display? For me it's about showing my journey, and my heart. Not every work will make it into a gallery on my site, but it may show up here to reveal a little more of my soul to you - and let you decide for yourselves - is it art?
It is art!! Most assuredly! Continuing to be amazed and impressed! The art and the written descriptions. Well done.