Exploring One’s Vision

How guarded should one be about ideas and emotions when creating works of art. Is the purpose of art to project all our experiences, in an effort to “heal”. Is the creative desire to communicate personal matters or experiences that powerful a motivator? What is the true nature of visual art? Trying to define what art is will not be the purpose of this reflection. We have struggled with what qualifies as art for nearly as long as there have been patrons who would invest in it. Movements in the 20th century actively tried to dismantle and dissect it, ism after ism, manifesto after manifesto.

Some would argue that art is best suited for social unrest or to at the very least be used as a method to challenge the status quo. It seeks to question both authority and the white washed sense of morality some “leaders” impose on its citizens. Leaving marginalized sectors out of a particular community and the global community as a whole.  A society that does not consider the “other” lacks a sense of unity.  Sometimes the very same group who at one time suffered great injustice tips the scales too far back, substituting one subversive group for another. A society falls into a pit of political correctives.

I think that at the end of the day our own personal inclinations/agenda has a great bearing on one’s production. Perhaps the work we create is in truth a window into how the world affects us. Sometimes it is based on experiences in our formative years. Not all works are serious and full of melancholy; some artists are quite humorous in their work. A sense of levity and humour can be a refreshing approach. At other times some make works that are kinetic or encourage an audience’s participation.

Being creative regardless of the particular stream is at times both liberating and cathartic. We can escape from the world and create a new one, our worst fears or our greatest hopes reside in our attempts at self expression and they play themselves out in our body of work. It would be a foolish and futile exercise to always look at what is in fashion and try to make work that is in that vein.

That is not to say that looking at contemporary works is a bad thing, it is just another consideration, like all experiences. We observe and distill aspects of our contemporaries in the same way we can be receptive to contemporary society including the political climate. If the concern is genuine, no matter what it happens to be, then we will have both the desire and determination to explore the concern. I would argue that it is then when we are demonstrating our authentic self.