When your art becomes too personal
I wonder if when my art becomes so personal for me, others don't have a way of accessing it emotionally or intellectually. I wonder if I need to make a bridge somehow creatively to communicate wit the viewers. Just food for thought.
Replies
i thought getting personal was the whole point of art. just thinking. . .
I hear you
I just have to somehow find an audience or maybe it should just be for me?
People will connect in ways that you don't anticipate. When we view art, listen to music, etc., we all bring our own history, emotions, and frameworks for meaning. Even if you set out to create art for a specific audience, they will still see it from their vantage point. They may respond to a color or form that has nothing to do with your original intent, yet it still feels emotionally or intellectually alive to them.
One of my favorite memories is from when my niece was five years old. We sat down at the piano and started plunking on the keys. I played little snippets of music that I made up on the spot, some loud and some soft, and asked her what they made her think of. Her answers ranged from a thunderstorm to birds to the family cat meowing. Each one meant something to her, even though I was just playing random notes and chords.
If you haven’t done it lately, consider visiting a modern art museum and interpret the paintings before reading the artist’s commentary. Each piece will take on a meaning for you that may be completely different from what the artist intended, but I’ll bet you’ll still leave feeling affected and enriched.
Hugs.
I agree with Ladybug, who expressed it so beautifully.
Thanks Judy and Susan!!
art for the audience?
art just for me?
i vote neither. great art has a life of its own.
i give you the parable of michelangelo sitting for months before a block of marble. "what are you doing?" his patron asked him.
"working." he answered in a tone to disinvite further inquiry.
that slab of marble is still with us today. we call ^it^, the statue of david. david wasn't made. he was born. michaelangelo was but the incubator.
thanks arfie...I remember that he used to say that