Art's Search for Meaning

 

I make a certain kind of art: flat figurative art, painted in watercolor on location, depicting places mostly without people in a simplified somewhat graphic style. I can and sometimes do make other kinds of art, but this is mostly what I make because I love the act of making it. I love being out in the world surrounded by life, experiencing a place as I paint it, often in the company of other artists.  i like working fairly quickly and solving problems on the fly, rather than obsessing over a work during multiple sessions.  I chose my locations and my particular subjects almost entirely because I like how they look. Pleasing to my eyes, interesting, beautiful.  

A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. And yet, museums and galleries include verbal descriptions, and art marketing experts suggest that art consumers respond to a story, which extends beyond the edges of the painting and includes the artist's life and words as well.  Part of me thinks art should (and does) speak for itself. But honestly, there's a lot of damned complicated art made by some absolute geniuses that I would never understand on my own.  

I sometimes wish I could figure out how to make art that expressed important messages in a compelling and urgent way. I think anybody with a voice and an audience ought to speak up and say what is important.  BE KIND, BE GRATEFUL, DON'T MESS UP THE WORLD, HELP AND DON'T HURT, BE HUMBLE, BE TOLERANT, BE UNDERSTANDING, CONDEMN HATE AND CRUELTY, SPREAD LOVE AND JOY.  

People have occasionally told me that my art gives them a sense of calm and I know a couple of times my art has brought people comfort - or at least the images depicted by my art brought comfort.  I'm afraid though that I'm not making soul-wrenching, life changing art. Which I kind of wish I were.  I will say though I really appreciate (in fact prefer) a good entertaining movie - something not too deep, like a nice little comedy.  I painted this morning at Echo Park. Although the lotus flowers were blooming, I painted some cars and residences across the street, with a palm tree in the foreground.