Monday April 6th, 2009. BACKLOGGED AGAIN. this is not confusing at all.

John and I had our reception for our senior exhibition yesterday.
It was great.
My parents came...
...and they bought one of John's pieces.
AND I had to explain to my aunt why there were skeleton hands and dead babies in one of my paintings.
AND I don't recall her saying anything about how good any of it was.
FML.

So here's my thought on showing people my art when they know nothing about me or art or MY art. or life.


I've found that it is really hard for most people to come to grips with something they do not understand. I think one of the biggest problems with art world is that it is too elite, mainly because the elite foster the impression that art is something you have to "get," like poetry or physics. I would like to think that you don't have to fully understand anything to think that it is beautiful or relate to it on some unconscious level.. isn't that what art is supposed to be?


I'm particularly concerned with what I am supposed to do, as an artist, when someone asks me what a specific painting is about. I suppose it depends on who is asking. This issue presents itself I think because of the context in which I show my work, in a venue where the people who are seeing the work aren't necessarily art/art history savvy.

It isn't that I don't know how to explain it; I don't mind describing my process, but I think most of the magic is gone from a piece of art when you get a play by play of what it is. It feels too cheap. Art is not a narrative (depending on how you define art, I suppose); it's just too subjective.

So how to explain without really explaining? I feel like artists in interviews always say things like, "I've always been interested in (insert some kind of theme or phenomenon that doesnt seem to pertain to anything specific in their work here)", which strikes me as a dodge, though interesting and insightful in its own right. I guess I'm happy to provide insight... I just don't want to give it all away. And since my first tendency is to explain everything to death, I need to find a better way to provide this insight-- point a finger in the right direction, instead of taking the viewer's hand and dragging them (albeit willingly) along with me.