Emotion the essence of expression
Tuesday, 26th February 2008
The unconscious want truth
It ceases to speak to those
Who want something else
More than truth
~ Adrienne Rich
When we respond to art, we are responding to its resonance in terms of our own experience. When we see something that speaks to us in a very personal way, we find that we can associate with it even calling it our own. Ministering its meaningfulness to us, it is this connection that makes art desirable, beautiful, the mirror to our souls for those that create but also for those that behold. To create art like this requires us to be truthful and sincere to ourselves and others. I have found through other artists work that there is no clearer voice in art than that of "genuine". Because as soon as we hear that voice, our own start to sing along with it whether we want it to or not. For some it is uncomfortable to hear that voice pipe up that they spend a lifetime trying to still yet for others it is the substance of life.
To be truthful and honest with yourself I believe is one of the bravest things one can do. To know yourself and to be comfortable with who you are, give others the freedom to accept themselves and to be themselves around you. The sense of being accepted is the greatest gift you can give anyone; The passerby on the street, the mans grip still warm in your handshake and those that share your heart or home. How many of us long to be understood and then accepted? Isn't that the purest form of love? Was Jesus the only one who could kneel beside a beggar and know his thoughts? Touch a leper and truly see the person under that disease without shunning away? I think the world needs more of that type of people showing that type of love. I wish I could see less of myself and more of the bigger picture.
If art speaks in the voice of genuine, then the language it speaks is that of emotion. And this finds its way to us through expression. The artist chooses a medium to convey a message, a message greater than the artist himself. Without the message there is no reason to create except for the vanity of fame and self-focus, that any respectable artist can tell you are no reward. The medium becomes the vessel of transfer. Like a great ship it carries the message across the sea to a new country, foreign land in the hope that it will be received, even honored.
A while back I saw a painting that touched me, speaking through the emotion it aroused in my heart. Immediately I wanted to own the painting, for the feeling it portrayed was already mine.
I believe the artist is more the instrument than the author of the work. We give more of an interpretation to the inspiration God has given us. Without a higher calling to create, there is no reason to create. Julia Cameron in her international bestselling book " The Artist's way" agrees on this point when she states: "As artists we need to create freely, allowing errors to reveal themselves later as insights. We often get mired in getting the details right. We correct our originality into a uniformity that lacks passion and spontaneity."
Therefore I believe one should capture emotion in a moment, that same emotion that inspired that moment becomes the life of the artwork, that draws to itself and feed on that emotion through those that behold it. I think I rightfully make the statement that we cannot create without emotion nor appreciate art without the help of emotion. Without this language of interpretation art is just a pretty picture, a nice melody, a bunch of meaningless words that cannot find their way into our lives.