beyond words

Very little art is made without the artist’s reliance on thoughts and concepts. Even if the work is visual, words are central to the process of its creation.

The last few times I posted images here I didn’t include any text. I remember thinking, this isn’t good for search engines. They rely on words. But, still, no words felt right. So I posted without anyway.

Recently I saw work by an artist I really admire. Unfortunately I don’t believe he has a blog. I related to his watercolors because, like me, he shows figures emerging from abstraction. But his process is different. He creates free form, then searches for images and places them thoughtfully in relationship to the abstract background. I do the opposite.  Without any thoughts or preconceptions in mind, I look at the freely created forms and wait for figures to make themselves apparent, then I “pull them out” of the abstract background.

Why do it this way? Because I want the viewer to be able to go beyond words, concepts and emotions when looking at an image. I don’t know, if course, if this will happen because we all bring our own thoughts and feelings to everything we see. But it seems the best I can do as an artist is to add as little as possible from the realm of mind on my end.

Okay, search engines, here are your words….have at it!