In the last post we started by looking at something beautiful and ended up by suggesting that beauty may be a trap. A breathtaking view becomes a trap if you think you can –how to say this—trap it. The common word for this is “capturing it.”
“Oh, you captured that perfectly.”
“That is so beautiful; I want to see if I can capture it in my painting.”
People talk about “capturing” all the time. In music, painting, in a novel, a movie. As if art making were some sort of hunting sport: you hunt the beauty down and then—gotcha!–you corral it in a fenced lot. You killed it!
So, art making is a form of execution. If that’s too strong a word, how about strangulation.
In any case, “capturing” results in lifelessness.
We don’t want lifelessness, do we.
The reason that a painting that duplicates a photo would result in lifelessness is that it would make something monumental, i.e. static, out of a fleeting moment. That would be a lie.
So, how can you allow yourself to be inspired by this image without deceiving yourself?
You can allow yourself to be mesmerized by a small passage that does not refer to a recognizable corner of reality. It does not illustrate anything.
Now, that you can paint—or draw! Not as a copyist, not directly, not in detail, but in gesture, in complete self-abandon. If you pivot your mind into that level of fiction, you may be onto something.
Onto what? We can’t predict. Let’s see.
https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2020/12/06/kitsch-101/
All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
artamaze by Katherine Hilden 