blah blah blah blog

I am very tired and may have to elaborate on this later, but I am sort of wary of a any art or discussion of art that makes my brain go "blah blah blah ginger."

I mean I know sometimes I go off on overly art speak tangents, but I think mostly when I do I am explaining a technique or tool or if discussing critique I am keeping it simple and communicative.

I am referring here to overly involved "I paid for these words with my tuition check and better use them"  discussions. Regurgitated coursework. That sort of thing.

When I worked as an operator for the phone company, we'd get a lot of Spanish speakers, and since when I was a drama filled teen (we all were, don't judge, you were too) my PLAN FOR LIFE was to be in Paris wandering around painting I took French all thru jr high, high school, and college. My Spanish is not functional. I cannot speak it at all. and I should have taken some Spanish at least a semester or two. But since I live where I do, I understand pretty much anything said to me in Spanish, I just don't command a vocabulary capable of responding with any accuracy.

When spanish speaking people would call in, I found that as long as I paid attention to what I was saying, visualized the point I was trying to get across, and meant what I said and said what I meant in English, then the Spanish speaker and I could understand each other with very little problem. Of course these were simple phone interactions having to do mostly with the operation of the phone itself.

But I found that the meaning what you say and visualizing to get your point across also works when explaining things to students and people who don't know what you are discussing as well. For instance if I were explaining how to prepare a canvas, I had better luck teaching it when I visualized it while I was speaking.

If you are talking about things and don't understand them yourself it makes it very hard for people to follow what you are saying, so if you are just spewing words you think will impress people, everyone can tell and it shuts their brains off, and you get a lot of "blah blah blah ginger" going on.

That's why I normally think it's a waste of time to "explain" art. Yes, it is a form of communication, BUT it should be self explanatory and the meaning changes for each viewer.YOUR explanation is not MY explanation, and that's fine, that's how it should be.

 People who NEED to explain it verbally to other people are imposing their view OR don't really want to admit they didn't actually look at it and let themselves be affected by it, so they are restating something someone else said about it without the power of understanding to fuel their words.

schools, influences, labels... they are all, at their base, meaningless. The real thing to understand is your internal thoughts about it. Art is simple, art is pure communication, visual depiction, music, dance they have no language barrier, all beings can be influenced by them see/hear/feel/do them.

It's the universal language, as simple as a smile and as complex as the history of the world.

Anything else is teaching a pig to whistle.

sometimes...

...I will just pick random things around the house to use as fodder. Today I was thinking of these glasses we have. One thing about glass and metallic items that appeal to me, is working thru the breaking down of light and shadow. The fascination of how all the shapes fit together to make a finished thing. While I am drawing or painting something I often think about what went into the original manufacture of the item.


Like was this glass molded or blown? Who made it? Were they just mindlessly making glasses or were they hoping this was the best glass they had ever made? Were they satisfied with the color? Did they wonder about where the glass would go and who would use it? Did they know I'd use it to wet the fork when I was making the criss crosses on peanut butter cookies? Did they wonder if someone would think it was beautiful enough to catch an artists' eye? Will they see this and think "That looks like those glasses I made 20 years ago!"

Also I think, about where it will end up going forward, not the glass itself, I'm such a klutz and I only have two of the six I bought left, plus The Georgie Cat is also a klutz. One day Tony will be cleaning up what is left of this glass after one or both of us knock it over.

But about the drawing itself, will someone hang it on the wall, and if so which wall? Will it end up in a yard sale for a dollar or fought over by someones heirs?

Who would have thought so much goes into and comes out of the simple act of choosing an old glass from the cupboard?

Daily Painting - The Logic Of A Glass -

©2011 Amy-Elyse Neer
6" x 9"  Washed Graphite on Montval Watercolor 140lb Cold Press Block
Daily Painting for 1-23-2011

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