little_tippler

I thought it might be interesting to see, in a relatively practical way, what art represents in the lives of each of us. To do this, I have written these questions which we can each answer, and then possibly discuss particular viewpoints that arise in the responses.

1 - Do you like art? Why/Why not?

2 - Does art serve any purpose to you? (can be abstract - e.g. visual pleasure, or objective - e.g. decoration) Why?

3 - Do you make time in your life for art? How?

4 - Tell us about your favourite kind of art or a favourite artist

5 - Do you care if there is art in your life or not? Why?

6 - Where do you go to see art?

7 - Where would you like to see art? Where should art be seen, in your opinion?

8 - How important/significant is art to you?

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1 - I love art. I can't remember a time when it didn't interest me. When I was younger, it would make me dream, about the stories in the paintings, about things going on in my own life, the compositions, the colours, would transport me to other worlds. I soon began making my own drawings, inspired in the art that I'd see, creating the things that I wanted to see happen in the art works.

2 - Art serves many purposes to me. People who say that art serves no purpose are really missing out, IMO. Art brings me mental and visual pleasure. It makes me think about things outside my own world and my daily life. It calms me and excites me. It makes me feel creative and helps rev up my imagination. It makes me think about other people and how they might think. It makes me question the established order of things. It makes me think about things in new and original ways. It can have social and even political effects. Art is a catalyst for change.

3 – I work in an art gallery so I have to make time. I also paint so I make time for it that way too. It’s not a chore. It’s a pleasure and a release. I also make time to see shows by other artists in all sorts of locations, from museums, to art galleries, to foundations, to small bars, parks, to out of the ordinary places such as barns, abandoned warehouses and factories, etc.

4 – My favourite kind of art, as for many teenagers, used to be Surrealist art. The fantastical dream-like quality of the works that appealed to my overflowing imagination of the time let my creativity run wild. Later I began to appreciate all kinds of art, such as expressionism, abstraction in a variety of forms, interactive art, video art, installation art, landart, the list goes on and on. Nowadays my knowledge of art seems so broad that I find it hard to pinpoint something I prefer over another. What I can say is that I can appreciate a work of art through its obvious technical quality, the amount of thought that has gone into it and the effective delivery of the artist’s idea. I tend to like well thought out formal compositions with strong dynamics. Colour I also like but if the work is good the colour won’t matter to me as much. I like contrasts of texture and between bold and delicate. I like tension – it gives certain art works an appearance of being alive. These days I am usually most struck by particularly inventive and original work (since I see so much art every day), usually in the form of an installation or sculpture. I quite like street art too.

5 – I most definitely care if there is art in my life. Without art I’d be a lot less inspired and creative. Art makes me want to know and learn more about many different areas of study, but of course particularly about the arts and how they can be an important part in the sensitive education of a human being. It can also be exciting and get me out of a rut at times.

6 – I will go to wherever there is a show that I think I will like. That can be outdoors or indoors, somewhere conventional or somewhere unique.

7 – I would like to see art in less intimidating, more inviting environments. I would like to see art shown in less conventional ways, in ways that engage the observer far more than you’d usually expect in an art show.

8 – I have no idea where I’d be without art in my life. I’d be someone else entirely. Life would certainly be a lot less creative and colourful, and a lot more intolerant and boring. I couldn't put into words how much art means to me, but it does. I may be silly to feel that way but I can't dissociate it from my existence, and don't want to. It's almost my religion - though I don't believe in religion as a concept for myself.

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Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918