Let Art Speak

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Back in November 2014 I wrote How to Explain Your Art and it became very popular not only in the blog but also in Ezine Articles and Fine Art America. In several discussions in LinkedIn I believe the article was misunderstood by some. The article was never intended to explain a specific piece of art but our general intent in creating art. Each individual piece should speak by itself. At least that is what I aim for as I explain in my artist statement:

“I am inspired by the fluidity, dynamism, and power of the human body.
I experiment with techniques and media that allow me to portray the figure in its balance between vivacity, emotion, strength, and sensibility.
I aim to provide each piece with its own soul, a life, and a story to tell on its own.”

A few years ago I painted a face of a lady with a crown of flowers and a very colorful background. The day I posted the picture on Facebook I received two comments from two different ladies. One of them expressed how happy the painting made her feel. On the other hand, the second lady expressed how sad the painting made her feel and how she cried when she saw it. The same painting was speaking in two different ways to two different individuals. The painting had no meaning in itself, or better said, no intended meaning. However, these two ladies found meaning by themselves.

muses

In my current exhibit closing January 24 the torsos speak differently to different individuals even though there are no faces. The body itself communicates to the viewer without explanations. Each piece can tell a story to the viewer and even more important, each viewer can create their own story. If I explain each piece I am stealing from the viewer to find meaning on their own. I would be also limiting the story to one instead of leaving it open to interpretations and an unlimited amount of stories as the viewers can find.

Photo Aug 27, 9 46 00 AM copy

I would preferably let art speak. Maybe it wants to tell you something if you just listen. Stop and observe. What domes to mind? What is it trying to tell you? How are you letting art speak to you? Words are not always necessary. You can feel it too without trying to articulate it. Just feel.

Process and Product

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10898002_10150521048914956_6592592532872143244_nOh, the delight of sculpting! Even when my hands are cramping after modeling the clay for so many hours and my body is slightly feeling the exhaustion there is nothing like seeing the sculpture take shape. Attempting to articulate the feeling of bliss I feel is almost futile. The experience is ethereal. Time seems to stop. The world fades away. The process transports me to a different place.

Between process and product I prefer the first. It is an adventure. Exploring possibilities. I like to begin with just a basic idea and just flow with it. Making sense of the direction of the sculpture is the most important aspect of the sculpting. The process belongs to me. That’s my time. Many of my sculptures don’t make it to shows. I’m always happy when they do. However, once a sculpture is out there it doesn’t belong to me anymore. The product is the end of it. Detachment comes fast after that.

The product belongs to them. The experience of conception, creation, and experimentation is now a memory. The sculpture is now exposed, vulnerable, and there is nothing I can do to change that. The sculpture is now abandoned waiting for a new home. In fact I decided for it to be there. People ask all the time if it makes me sad seeing them go. The answer is ‘No’. On the contrary, once the process is complete I am detached from the sculpture. That doesn’t mean I’m giving it way.

Visual Intelligence

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There are three classes of people:
those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Howard Gardner proposed in Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences that intelligence as ‘one thing’ is too limiting to account to the broader range of human abilities and capabilities. He separates intelligence in nine modalities (I’m sure that the list will continue growing):

  • Linguistic intelligence
  • Logical-mathematical intelligence
  • Spatial (Visual) intelligence
  • Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence
  • Musical intelligence
  • Interpersonal intelligence
  • Intrapersonal intelligence
  • Naturalist intelligence
  • Existential or spiritual intelligence
Look Up

Look Up by Iván Tirado

It is possible that the first group of people coming to mind when one hears ‘visual intelligence’ is artists. Not only people who can draw, paint, sculpt, or design have visual intelligence. Visual intelligence is extended to sports. Court vision in basketball is important to shoot and pass the ball. The same applies in football, baseball, and boxing. Dancers too require that sense of space when they perform. Even today’s video games require visual intelligence with those virtual words that make me dizzy about five minutes into the game.

I do believe that artists have visual intelligence indeed. I also believe that artists share bodily-knestetic intelligence too in order to transfer their vision into a tangible creation. Bodily-knestetic intelligence is not only for sports and dance. I believe we can call it ‘technique’.  Artists also share logical-mathematical intelligence. Moreover, artists are also existential or spiritual intelligent. Why it seems like I’m focusing in artists and visual intelligence? Well, I am an artist. I also stink at music and most sports. The fact is that my favorite aspect of visual intelligence because it is not about what we see with the eyes.

Blind people develop visual intelligence to make sense of their environment. Is that perception of space that goes beyond the world we see. Visual intelligence can inform the other intelligences allowing us to become aware of a different kind of world. We can close our eyes and see it. Our senses become consumed with it. This intelligence allows the development of problem-solving skills, capturing and interpreting information, and perceived the world we see with the naked eye and the world not seen. Leonardo Da Vinci called it ‘the reflective eye’. Leonardo believed that ‘the artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of‘.

Like Singing in the Shower

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blog writingWriting a blog is like singing in the shower. You sing like no one is listening because most probably that’s the truth. Even if people are listening you don’t care. That’s your time to flex your pipes and let it out even if you don’t know how to sing. There is no program either. You don’t plan the songs you are going to sing in the shower ahead of time. Whatever song comes to mind you go with it. If you don’t remember the lyrics it doesn’t matter either. You make them up as you go. You mix up songs just for fun. It is your own private concert where you are performer and audience.

I began writing this blog two months ago because my wife suggested the idea. I didn’t know people actually read this stuff. I just began writing. To my surprise people are actually reading. I am very thankful for almost 10,000 views in two months to this website. I truly appreciate that. It is great to see the comments not only here but also in the social media sites. The e-mail messages are very encouraging and inspiring as well. I never received such good feedback from singing in the shower. I am sure that no matter how bad I write it is way better than my singing. Believe me when I say that you don’t want to hear me sing. It actually hurts people.

What’s the plan? What is this blog thing all about? This blog is a way to communicate the relationship between art, cognitive psychology, instructional design, and life. Which one is my favorite subject? I’ll say ‘experience’. I share what I live, know, and learn in these areas. I also like to write about all the things I don’t know. That makes it easier because I don’t know a lot. Like singing in the shower the plan is to enjoy the process of writing and do it from the heart, and sometimes from the brain. Since there is more hope for my writing than it is for my singing (no hope there) I would like to get better at it. It is a challenge to myself. By the one year milestone, for which I am not even close to almost halfway there, I would like to put together a book. Who knows? Maybe people still read books too.

Retrace Your Steps

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figure study

You came into the room. You stopped. Looked around. You are trying to remember why you came to the room and what you were looking for. You know how it is to get those mental blackouts. “What was I looking for?” That’s often the first question that pops. Now you have to go back and retrace your steps.

I find interesting when in movies and television shows they begin the story at a point almost to the end to go back and tell the story to that point. Then the action picks up to complete the story. It would make to sense to continue the story from that point before giving us the back story. There is a purpose for that last scene and some hints are provided through the story.

When painting we often get caught up in a tiny detail and forget to step back and look at the big picture. In sculpting, specially figurative sculpting, each detail needs to make sense with the complete figure. We need to step back from time to time and retrace our steps to that moment to understand our progress. Then we move on to the next step.

As 2014 comes to an end it is very easy to forget why we are here. It is very easy to get caught up in a tiny detail of today and forget how we made it here. I mean, we are here for a purpose, right? Would it make sense to move forward in the story not knowing why we are here? Take a moment and retrace your steps to the beginning of the year. See the big picture. The fact that you made it from the beginning of the year until now is reason enough to celebrate.