Manifesto

I think of art as a language. It’s a visual language in which all of us humans can participate, regardless of what verbal language we speak or culture we belong to. Something deep inside our brains gets really excited when we see an image or an object that we find delightful or inspiring or emotionally connective. I would use the word “beautiful” here but that word doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. In my desire to create art, there is a deep seated desire to communicate, on a very fundamental level, with the rest of my fellow humans. Words get in the way, languages don’t always translate directly, culture can sometimes blind us with biases. But certain basic images, colors, and shapes resonate with all of us.

The things I want to communicate are sometimes simply centered on what I think of as “beauty”. The certain twist of a spiral, the perfect color of painted flesh, the abstract line that leads the eye to discover hidden places within the work. Other things I wish to communicate are more complicated; death, genocide, life, celebration, survival, transitions, un-nameable emotions. I could write about these things. Words have power but words can also have several different meanings. The interface between emotional transmission of ideas and the language used to attempt that transmission is imperfect at best.

But visual language? There is a vast vista of emotive quality to art. How does the color red make us feel? What does a smile on a face in a painting mean? Why do we have the urge to run our hands across a sculpture? That deep, visceral connectivity is direct. There are no words between us and the experience of art, between us and the artist who created the work. Nothing to get in the way.

This is the kind of communication I crave. This is the kind of primal connection I want with my fellow humans. This is why I make art.