I know what I like, and, art is in the eye of the beholder, right?
Thursday, February 1, 2007 at 09:38AM 
similar, but very different • click on photo to embiggen it Yesterday evening, while I was sitting on the throne (in the room pictured here), I had an epiphany of sorts.
The epiphanalyptic experience was triggered by the leis-like thing (seen in the right-hand photograph) that was then hanging on the powder room door knob. What struck me was how visually disturbing I found it to be in the total visual context of the monochromatic scheme of the room. Not at all like the visually soothing sensations I get from my more permanent "installation art" broom arrangement(left-hand photograph).
I am completely serious about this - in the context of the room, I find the leis visually, hence emotionally, disturbing and the broom visually, hence emotionally, soothing. Not run-out-and-jump-off-a-cliff disturbing, nor, all-is-well-with-the-world soothing, but strong visual/emotional triggers, on a "gut" level, nevertheless.
Now, there's nothing particulary revelatory about that - as an example, we all know that we like or dislike particular colors. Not, like-or-dislike, as the result of careful thought or deliberation, but seemingly because they do or don't strike our fancy. However, both science and art have discovered that individual colors have distinctly different visual/emotional characteristics. Some colors emerge, some receed. Some incite passion, some coolness. And so on.
But my experience in the can was not just about color, rather, it was about the total visual experience of the room - a feng shui kind of thing. I knew that I "disliked" the leis hanging there, but I almost immediately wondered, why?. I don't "dislike" the leis any more as an object than I "like" the broom as an object. Why is it that every time I have encountered that leis in the powder room (it's been there for about month), do I feel like something ain't right?
Well, the epiphany part of the experience struck me in a flash - DNA, genetics, the preternatural ... call it what you will ... it's just a part of me, deep inside my bones. If I wanted to spend lots and lots of my health-care dollars, I could see a shrink and maybe figure it out. But a shrink might not really be interested in this regarding its implications for my photography and my appreciation/ understanding of Art in general, i.e., what I like, what i don't like.
That's what I really want to know/understand.
As I have mentioned before, I don't "compose" my photography with any conscious sense of the rules of composition. When confronted with a scene/subject, certain "arrangements" just seem to "jump" out and capture my eye. Most often, these "arrangements" are relatively complex in nature - I seem preternaturally drawn to the complex. Instinctively. Intuitively, and, Inexplicably.
Yet, for myself and others, my sense of composition works. However, if I were told that I could make millions by putting my compositional techinque in a can (not in the can), I'd be a poor man for the rest of my life.
One thing I do know for sure, though, is the fact that my predalitiction for the complex came fully formed along with my delivery. From a very early age, I was drawn to Shel Silverstein's illustrations - lots and lots of detail. I started my life as an artist (5 or 6 years old) trying to draw like him. Instinctively. Intuitively, and, Inexplicably.
But, nevertheless, I am also certain that that's why I create lots of photographs like this. Maybe it's not important to know "why". Maybe it's important just to "do it".
Reader Comments (4)
I had this image tagged as my favorite. I know that for me, I really don't need to know the "why" to make an image. I just know that I am driven to the detailed filled, chaotic scenes. Somewhere in there is a subtle composition.
I do not, and you do not just point the camera and fire willy-nilly. It must be the well seasoned sub-conciousness taking over. There must be a guidance in some respect, to fullfill the gnawing inside, to create images such as these.
i think i use a "well seasoned sub-conciousness"
too. every vermeer, atget, eggleston, etc that i ever stared at is informing the way that i move the rectangle around over the part of the world i'm looking at.
Mark,
I'm most enamored of the new word you seem to have coined with this post: epiphanalyptic. At least it's one that I've never heard before. I think you should definitely head to psycho-anal-ysis and discuss the preternatural leaning toward chaos and complexity that you are afflicted with. :-)
Hey Mary,
I'll trade my "epiphanalyptic" for your "whirld"