There is one endlessly investing and intrinsic facet to art that regularly holds my mind at ransom. In short, what is arts ‘truest’ meaning and how is this revealed? Simply, art with true personal meaning and creative merit is born from a need for the artist to self-express, yet the artists journey cannot lead them to perfection without others, as it is within others that perfection is attained. So what is the artists ultimate aim?
For me, art has always been a tool for expressing what I cannot express in my everyday existence or within everyday conversation. Sometimes art is the glue that holds disparate concepts together to form cogent perspectives. Equally, sometimes it simply acts as a canvas on which I which I can paint my emotions, quite unhindered by convention and the cultural bindings of even the most progressive of societies.
But that is just me, at this very precise point on my lifelong journey.
I am always fascinated to talk to other about what art means to them.
Art is, ultimately, completely subjective.
(Photo – Eli Woodbine, AGO, Toronto, 2016)
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