One way to engage in art is merely to enjoy the visual impact of the intended images captured in paint, line, color or form. Another way in which art can be intellectually and aesthetically engaging is in discussion about its content, its character, its context or its message. I often find the comments people make at art exhibits about individual works or artists challenging.... some are clearly misinformed, some are superficial at best, but most are in the end just honest human expressions about the human expression that artistic endeavor produces and the reaction it generates in the viewer. Everybody is a critic and deserves to be.
One of my favorite cinematic artists is Woody Alllen, and I am often reminded of the scene in Annie Hall where Alvie Singer challenges Marshall McLuhan on comments he dares to make about media and messages while standing in line for a film, as if either McLuhan or Allen doesn't have more than the average credential to engage in such a conversation. Many of the critics of some of my favorite painters like Wyeth find representational art somehow less artistic than more abstract and expressionistic styles. And for some people the ultimate judgment about a painting is whether or not it would look good over their couch.
Is anyone's opinion about art any more important or significant than anyone else's? Is what the artist has to say about a work any more meaningful than the work itself? Who paints or sculpts or composes for anyone other than themselves in the end? And if they do produce art for someone else is it art or something less? The classic illustrator versus artist dilemma that Norman Rockwell or N.C. Wyeth faced.....
I hope you like one or more of my paintings, and I hope I do the medium some justice. But in the end, I have the luxury of painting because I enjoy doing it, and because I think that large purple sky does look good over our couch. Thankfully, so does my wife.
One of my favorite cinematic artists is Woody Alllen, and I am often reminded of the scene in Annie Hall where Alvie Singer challenges Marshall McLuhan on comments he dares to make about media and messages while standing in line for a film, as if either McLuhan or Allen doesn't have more than the average credential to engage in such a conversation. Many of the critics of some of my favorite painters like Wyeth find representational art somehow less artistic than more abstract and expressionistic styles. And for some people the ultimate judgment about a painting is whether or not it would look good over their couch.
Is anyone's opinion about art any more important or significant than anyone else's? Is what the artist has to say about a work any more meaningful than the work itself? Who paints or sculpts or composes for anyone other than themselves in the end? And if they do produce art for someone else is it art or something less? The classic illustrator versus artist dilemma that Norman Rockwell or N.C. Wyeth faced.....
I hope you like one or more of my paintings, and I hope I do the medium some justice. But in the end, I have the luxury of painting because I enjoy doing it, and because I think that large purple sky does look good over our couch. Thankfully, so does my wife.
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