ABOUT ART

by  She Garrett

To create art it is necessary to be entirely involved and immersed in the process, in order to express an idea, with the hope that it speaks to others about what it was that spoke to you. Works of art fill a space with more than beauty, they carry with them imaginative seeds, that once gathered by the eye can burst forth in the mind of the viewer in all sorts of ways.

I believe that most photographs are viewed with the same part of the brain that is used to process everyday life, in that they are viewed in a practical sense with all the mental filters in place, which we use to tune out much of what we experience, we have to do that in order to process only the data that we need to proceed through our daily lives, otherwise we would go quite mad.

Certain photographers however, are able to capture, like the artist, a fleeting ethereal moment and the ensuing image is then viewed by the creative mind, just as a painting would be. This factor elevates certain photographs into the realms of fine art.

Paintings, good paintings are usually an abstraction of what the artist was viewing. A work that is a meticulous copy from a photograph, generally does not have the same appeal, one can say that it is clever, or well executed, but not artistic or embodying those qualities of a painting that contains part of the artists soul

I stumble around with brush and pencil trying to emulate the incredible refinement and finesse, the captivating form and colours of nature, embarrassed by my clumsiness and humbled when people praise my efforts, knowing that most of the time I am a fraud, but still striving for those rare moments when truth emerges, only to look again later at what emerged and say “how did I do that.”

One cannot hope to reproduce that which nature creates at every instant, but the reason for trying is that on those rare occasions when effort and imagination capture a fleeting something that speaks to the soul, then one recognizes a sort of truth that is common to all and one is still for a moment and at peace.

Nature is ever changing, evanescent, but an image captured by an artist can remain for decades and even centuries. The essence, the idea, the imaginative trigger point that was flowing through the artists at the time of the works creation, is passed on and is still evoked in the mind of the viewer, long after the artist is gone.

Maybe it is just that, in creating art, we are trying to pass on messages that we were here, feeling the same things that others feel, enthralled by the same things that enthrall others, to let the viewer know that he is not alone in his struggle.