Fascinating. I am still wondering, however, if the art you spoke of was meant to evoke feeling in the observer or to emit the emotional/psychological state of the artist. I can see the former but still hesitate on the latter, even though I can’t imagine a sick mind being able to do what they did.
I guess that unless we delve deep into their biographies we’ll never know for sure.
Thanks for commenting. What I was aiming for was to examine visual clues and cues in painting and see how they affect your emotions, thoughts, and sensory experiences. It’s definitely like learning a new language. I sympathize with your hesitation. It will be interesting if it gets you to look more closely at art while also looking for its covert clues.
Totally agree that art assaults the senses, in varying degrees, for good or ill.
It seems that the intention was different “in the old days” from what it is now. I feel genuine joy, melancholy, curiosity, contemplation from the old art. In today’s, I feel chaos, disruption and a curious “fight” response, almost an anger emanating from it.
Does it have something to do with the audience aimed at? A lot of the old ones were commissioned in one way or another so they had better evoke feelings complimentary to that. Today’s seem more aimed at the masses, which tells a tale in itself.
Thank you for getting me to really think instead of just feel and go with it. I do look at art differently now.
“ Sensitive and deeply intuitive people can feel visual art language, but the process to create it is exceptionally complicated. Good artists learn it by storing everything they have ever seen—including all the artworks they have experienced. They take this massive amount of visual information and categorize it by mental, emotional, and sensory associations; it is staggering in human scope. This trinity distinguishes art from all other human enterprises. Then the artworks pass on these associations like DNA threads, which become embedded in a receptive audience's integral being, thereby passing on new and sometimes evolutionary connections.”
One of my degrees in college is in Social Ecology from UCI. It made my Mom happy I had a safety net in a degree other than one in just fine arts (dance).
I learned a lot about how our environment effects our psychological well-being. Not that you need a degree to understand that concept, but we intensely studied it. I left college feeling altruistic thinking that with the concepts I learned I could help make the world a better place to live for everyone. But instead when I began experiencing the real world I found the opposite principles to be true. For instance, you can easily lift up the spirit of the poor by providing a more aesthetic appealing environment just by adding street lights, landscaping and a coat of paint on their homes. But in real life outside of college, I saw none of what I learned being applied to society around me. I noticed a deconstruct instead.
Years later I lived in Berlin immediately following the wall coming down. The only thing that distinguished East Berlin from West Berlin were the beautiful parks, trees and liveliness of Spirit of the West Berliners. And I am not talking about that donut for eat to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Lol!😂
So one time, we performed a morning promotional show at the east Berlin library attended by about 200 residents. I looked at a small sea of gloomy faces without hope. I would love to go back and see if changes have been made.
Thank you so much Michael for all of your work, you remind us that art should have never been removed from the classroom curriculum.
I enjoy reading your analysis of paintings; you always bring something forth that I had not considered, adding to the richness of my experience. Thank you very much.
"time stops when humans take a moment to look and ponder" well put. The bit about the hands and posture...insightful. Well done analysis. A writer can learn a lot about honing his craft from this. For example, it gets a little tiresome to describe the same features (eg. grins, smirks, eye rolls, and sighs) over and over. I've been doing more with the other bits, lately. Hands in a recent chapter, the body posture, and attire, too. I've been having fun with it. I'll check out some Delacroix, Rembrandt and Manet however I can next time I need a spark of inspiration or something to refresh my creativity.
Fascinating. I am still wondering, however, if the art you spoke of was meant to evoke feeling in the observer or to emit the emotional/psychological state of the artist. I can see the former but still hesitate on the latter, even though I can’t imagine a sick mind being able to do what they did.
I guess that unless we delve deep into their biographies we’ll never know for sure.
Thank you!
Thanks for commenting. What I was aiming for was to examine visual clues and cues in painting and see how they affect your emotions, thoughts, and sensory experiences. It’s definitely like learning a new language. I sympathize with your hesitation. It will be interesting if it gets you to look more closely at art while also looking for its covert clues.
Totally agree that art assaults the senses, in varying degrees, for good or ill.
It seems that the intention was different “in the old days” from what it is now. I feel genuine joy, melancholy, curiosity, contemplation from the old art. In today’s, I feel chaos, disruption and a curious “fight” response, almost an anger emanating from it.
Does it have something to do with the audience aimed at? A lot of the old ones were commissioned in one way or another so they had better evoke feelings complimentary to that. Today’s seem more aimed at the masses, which tells a tale in itself.
Thank you for getting me to really think instead of just feel and go with it. I do look at art differently now.
Brilliant!
Thank you my friend.
“ Sensitive and deeply intuitive people can feel visual art language, but the process to create it is exceptionally complicated. Good artists learn it by storing everything they have ever seen—including all the artworks they have experienced. They take this massive amount of visual information and categorize it by mental, emotional, and sensory associations; it is staggering in human scope. This trinity distinguishes art from all other human enterprises. Then the artworks pass on these associations like DNA threads, which become embedded in a receptive audience's integral being, thereby passing on new and sometimes evolutionary connections.”
One of my degrees in college is in Social Ecology from UCI. It made my Mom happy I had a safety net in a degree other than one in just fine arts (dance).
I learned a lot about how our environment effects our psychological well-being. Not that you need a degree to understand that concept, but we intensely studied it. I left college feeling altruistic thinking that with the concepts I learned I could help make the world a better place to live for everyone. But instead when I began experiencing the real world I found the opposite principles to be true. For instance, you can easily lift up the spirit of the poor by providing a more aesthetic appealing environment just by adding street lights, landscaping and a coat of paint on their homes. But in real life outside of college, I saw none of what I learned being applied to society around me. I noticed a deconstruct instead.
Years later I lived in Berlin immediately following the wall coming down. The only thing that distinguished East Berlin from West Berlin were the beautiful parks, trees and liveliness of Spirit of the West Berliners. And I am not talking about that donut for eat to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Lol!😂
So one time, we performed a morning promotional show at the east Berlin library attended by about 200 residents. I looked at a small sea of gloomy faces without hope. I would love to go back and see if changes have been made.
Thank you so much Michael for all of your work, you remind us that art should have never been removed from the classroom curriculum.
I enjoy reading your analysis of paintings; you always bring something forth that I had not considered, adding to the richness of my experience. Thank you very much.
Thank you Jenn, that makes me happy.
"time stops when humans take a moment to look and ponder" well put. The bit about the hands and posture...insightful. Well done analysis. A writer can learn a lot about honing his craft from this. For example, it gets a little tiresome to describe the same features (eg. grins, smirks, eye rolls, and sighs) over and over. I've been doing more with the other bits, lately. Hands in a recent chapter, the body posture, and attire, too. I've been having fun with it. I'll check out some Delacroix, Rembrandt and Manet however I can next time I need a spark of inspiration or something to refresh my creativity.
Ah, I hadn’t thought about how writers could use artworks to inform their writing… but after reading your comment I can see it. Thank you.