civilized ku # 455 / ku # 705 ~ being in the moment
Monday, April 5, 2010 at 02:59PM 
A balance beam and decaying birch • click to embiggenRelative to my recent entry, ku # 697, wherein I wrote about picture makers struggling to break out of the pretty picture making picturing MO, it seems that one old and gnarly guy is pining for "some small shred of insight into 'Real Art'".
OK, sure. I'll do what I can to help but, first things first .... IMO, one of the greatest influences on getting at least some small shred of insight into “Real Art” is the old Right Brain / Left Brain thing. To clarify:
The Left Brain favors Logical/Sequential, Rational, Analytical, Objective, and Looks-at-parts thinking. Traits that would serve well, say, a statistician or someone involved in chartered accountancy.
The Right Brain favors Random/Intuitive, Holistic/Synthesizing, Subjective, and Looks-at-wholes thinking. Traits that serve well, say, an artist or someone involved in interior design.
Left Brain thinkers are also said to be literal or verbal thinkers while Right Brain thinkers are said to be intuitive or visual thinkers. Most thinkers favor / use one side of the brain or the other as their dominant way of thinking - which is not to say that those different ways of thinking are mutually exclusive because, quite simply, they are not.
Most Right Brain dominant thinkers also tend toward free association - a spontaneous, logically unconstrained and undirected association of ideas, emotions, and feelings. Consequently, they lean toward questioning and challenging convention. In short, they like, one could even say that they are driven, to break the rules, unlike their Left Brain counterparts who are much more likely to unquestioningly follow the rules.
All of that said, there is little doubt that the Right Brain favors creativity, exploration, and risk taking. As a result, Right Brain thinking favors the artist and it should come as no surprise that Modern Dance, Abstract Impressionism, Modern Poetry, Free Form Jazz, and whole host of other "modern" artistic activities have sprung from the minds of Right Brain thinkers.
It should also come as no surprise that Right Brain thinkers - artists or not - tend to understand and/or appreciate many forms of "modern" art. A picture, a painting, a musical performance, a poem can trigger a whole range of free associations that move the viewer / observer well beyond the literal plane of mere appearances and words. In the mind of visual thinkers, ideas, feelings, and emotions are quite literally, hair-trigger sensitive.
In the visual arts and for the Right Brainers, colors and shapes can set off quite a cascade of seemingly random thoughts and emotions. That is why, for many, a Jackson Pollock painting is so much more than just a random splash and dash of paint on canvas. Why a Warhol print can be so much more than just a Campbells soup can. Why Eggleston's Tricycle is so much more than just a picture of a tricycle.
And, yes, Mr. Old and Gnarly, that is why a playground balance beam and a pile of twigs / detritus in the snow can be so much more than what mere appearances suggest they might be.
Reader Comments (1)
Very interesting lecture on art and the brain
By: V.S. Ramachandran Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition and Professor with the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4384015941059041392#