Art as a Language

Some of my favorite artists try to create their own worlds.. or they try to make this one resemble their own. Art shapes our world and how we perceive it but so much of the human experience is visual. If someone asked me to write an essay about something, I could go into nuanced detail about its features, history, anything about it. But with art, you have the ability to show.

The ancient Greeks used poetry to paint with words to pull the listener in. In other words, they used lyrics to convey and music to feel. They would often strum a lyre, which is where the word lyric comes from, and also sing the words. The two were inseparable in creating a sense of time and place for the audience.

In visual art, a feeling can come from the familiarity of a subject. Our minds operate heavily on images. The images we perceive have a huge bearing on our psyche and how we view the world and what we value and fear. The mind can process in one glance over 800 million different objects and their relations to those around them. Those images for the most part are unconsciously stored as a reference. When we walk in daylight we unconsciously process the scene to walk a confident step forward. In the dark, we are unsure. Our visual perceptions are at work, but play a role behind the scenes.

With art, we take in all the relevant data in an instant. There's no need to go into detail as the subconscious crunches the numbers. This is a very unpoetic way of interpreting the value of art as a language and as its value in a society.

If you want to change the world, make benevolent art. It will be a point of reference the mind will unconsciously store so you can take a confident step forward in that direction without having to think about it.

Spring

Swirling rust fades from the eyes,
A harsh winter has pushed the tulip's bloom well into summer,

Quiet to hear the trilling
golden and purple flashes
sparkling sand washes anew,

Ending the end,
Only a phoenix can do, as it feeds itself in its destruction
there to rise again.

Does the World Make Way?

This painting kind of took on its own life. It symbolizes steadfastness and courage. I meant to show the girl walking through debris and a broken world and persisting through. I painted over that with the clouds. Its like how you view adversity. If you shrug it off, adversity is only a way to improve yourself and become tempered. There is a falun in the background. In Falun Dafa (what I practice), that is it's symbol. It gives her wisdom to see the world in a new light. This isn't a painting of the heavens, but of the earth to a person on a spiritual path. All of the hardships one faces can be turned into opportunities to grow and learn and elevate your character.

Lesson Learned

Going back to the old canvas I was using all last summer. It says no gesso needed. The paint however doesn't absorb into the canvas at all. So that led to a summer of a wax on, wax off type approach to painting. Applying wet oil paint on top of yet more wet oil paint constantly leaves everything swirling into a color you don't want it to if you are trying to finish a painting in one sitting.

Here I had to apply a fairly thick coat of gesso.