The Stories in Our Heads as Artists

What goes through your mind as you paint? What games do you play in your mind as you create art? In the following post I describe my experience with the color red. Please share your art experiences in the comments below.

There is a moment right before red turns to marigold, where red is in its most profound state. Then all is lost. This color, both a quiet friend and undermining foe, comes and goes either in age or with a quick death of contradicting color as the whole of the piece must move forward. A bit playful and gopher-like, the perfect color red is also a taunting, troublesome hobgoblin.

No doubt, the search for the perfect red leaves me somewhat torn between a the joy of a minor, vibrant victory and the need to create something greater. Foolishly, I once thought I could paint the perfect red and be satisfied. And as my brush came to the last vacancy on the giant canvas, the red was not so bright anymore. I grabbed graphite, charcoal, and paint, and destroyed the painting. For one brief moment the last of the perfect red peered through rebar lines of gray before I snuffed its life with a jab of my thumb.

The perfect red peered through rebar lines of gray.

What is Art? Price, Venue, and Meaning

Don't for one minute think that price and venue don't influence meaning. Case and point: I hand you a plain piece of paper with my signature in the bottom right corner and I tell you that you can have it for 5 cents - a little more than material cost.

Paper with signature. Neat.

Now I hand you the same piece of paper and say it is worth 100,000 dollars. That piece of paper now takes on a different meaning. You think twice about it. Is it a one-of-a-kind commentary on society? Why is this worth 100,000 dollars? Surely there is something more to it!

Finally, someone had the nerve. "I get it."

That piece of paper sells for 100,000 dollars and makes it into a museum or highly esteemed gallery. Now location (and the fact that it sold) builds authority. What does the piece mean now?

This really represented our time.

What is Art? The Novelty of Realism

In painting, realism turns the talent of the artist into nothing more than a novelty act of duplication, instilling a sense within the onlooker to compare the piece against its true form and make a judgement on the quality - in this case closeness - of the copy to something imaginably real. If close, the onlooker lets out a jubilant "hoo-haw," taking notice of the amazing ability of the artist to manisfest him- or herself as a flesh-and-blood Xerox machine.

But what about the story that the realistic piece tells, surely that is more than a novelty act? Perhaps, but what if I told that same story with something so obviously not art? For example, what if I were to recreate Da Vinci's The Last Supper using only stick figures? Would that be art? No, probably not.

Is realism a novelty act? What role does novelty play in creating a context that makes us feel an object is art? Comment below.



 Da Vinci's The Last Supper with its aesthetics removed.