Aristotle
I think this is a very thoughtful way of thinking about art making. Sometimes, representation of something just as it is, is important and oh so beautiful. But oftentimes, art is about feeling. It is about expressing a desire or a need. It is about an attempt to share insight and understanding; to respond and give voice to thoughts and experiences.
Aristotle wrote this a very long time ago, and I am amazed at how apt it remains.
I think he is suggesting that art is about looking beyond the surface and trying to explain/express/represent what the significance of that landscape is; or of those objects; or of the person. It is not simply about representing them photographically accurately, but more about representing them; and their meaning and depth.
A detail from Tenebrae...attempting to express light out of darkness.
I love that thought of Aristotle's, and for me it is how I work, to capture or convey how I feel about something within my work. I have discovered as I go that almost always my thoughts and understanding deepen as I work, creating a richness that wasn't there before I began and changing "the colour of my mind" (to use Emily Brontë's words").
ReplyDeleteIt's so apt isn't it? And those words of Emily Bronte add so much! The richness gets richer and deeper as we explore and come to understand our responses I think. So often I am trying to work out how to make something that looks like how I feel; that somehow gives a sense of the thought/issue/idea as much as a representation of it. I think that is why I feel that each and every making decision matters as that feels like like tying my thoughts together somehow...so much to think about in a small quote!
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