Thursday, July 30, 2009

Believing is Also Feeling

UPDATE: I'm not feeling particularly wordy today, but since I've had two "I don't get it" comments since I first posted this, I feel the need to explain just a bit about what was going through my jumbled little mind when doing this post. Art is so much more than the ability to paint, write or sculpt from a technical standpoint. Ten artists might see the same tree and paint it ten different ways, because so much of the creative process comes from the heart, not the head or hands. So, there you go...

How to Draw a Picture (Part 7)
(Excerpt from Duma Key by Stephen King)

Remember that "seeing is believing" puts the cart before the horse. Art is the concrete artifact of faith and expectation, the realization of a world that would otherwise be a veil of pointless consciousness stretched over a gulf of mystery. And besides -- if you don't believe what you see, who will believe your art?

Believing is also feeling.
Any artist will tell you so.



























"Art is the concrete artifact of faith and expectation, the realization of a world that would otherwise be a veil of pointless consciousness stretched over a gulf of mystery."

Yes.

12 comments:

Peter P said...

I really don't understand art!

I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Aesthetics do nothing for me. Not art, not scenery, none of it.

I feel disabled because of it!

Candy said...

I'm with Peter on this one. I don't do math, either. That said, I really like the tree with the reflection in the water.

Is this what's going on that mural in my foyer? We need to talk. I am SO not artsy.

Billy Coffey said...

I think it's amazing how a single concept can be interpreted by so many people in so many ways. That's why art is both so public and so personal. No matter what the subject is that we paint or write or sing, the end result is much more than our interpretation of that subject. It's about our own desires and struggles.

katdish said...

What Billy said...

LeLe said...

I love "Tree of Life" art. :)

Beth said...

Oh, I get it, but that's probably no surprise to you! And this post makes me think it's been way too long since I've visited an art museum. I was the kid who got made fun of for loving the art museum field trips... I think I've always wanted to be a visual artist, but alas, the talent is a little sparse in that area. I could always see it in my head but could never quite translate it to paper... While you are in Chicago visiting our dear Helen, you must go to the Institute of Art there. I could stay in that place for days!

L.L. Barkat said...

Love the blue tree. I can feel it, yes.

Jeanne Damoff said...

Love this. My post on the Master's Artist today deals with the stories paintings tell. I love Billy's comment, too. Art speaks in many languages (color, texture, light, darkness, notes, words . . .), all of them connecting the soul of the artist with another soul. Perhaps we fail to understand art because soul connections aren't instantaneous. They need time to age like a fine wine.

Thanks for sharing art you love, Katdish. It lets us see another facet of your heart.

Love, Jeanne

Wendy Paine Miller said...

I like what Billy wrote.

I also enjoy pictures and art that ignite thought. The ones you posted do just that.

~ Wendy

Helen said...

Oooo! YES! YES! I love the Art Institute of Chicago! They have a picture of Judith holding the head of Holfernes (nude) that is fierce and not fierce at the same time....The juxtaposition of her softness, and then holding the bloody decapitated head of a general...

There are also Monet's, Renaissance art, a room with Etrascan art in the basement, a Picasso of a baby where the child is all roundness, not triangular (like he painted women).

Yes. I have been to the Art Institute before. How could you tell?

I don't always understand art. Some I get, some I don't. I'm okay with that.

Sherri Murphy said...

I don't think we always must "get it". We are on the outside looking in on someone's thoughts, emotions, desires as only they can describe them. The art is uniquely theirs. But sometimes their creations stir something within us. We still may not "get it", but it speaks to us.
each of these pieces causes some "feeling" to arise whether I get it or not.

jasonS said...

It's funny, I looked at the pictures before I read anything and thought exactly what you wrote. It's beautiful and amazing how each of us can see things in our own way even as we look at the "same" thing. We can do it in situations, art, Scriptures, books, whatever. That's why each of us is important and has something to contribute.

I loved this post! And it does make me want to visit an art museum. :)