Is there some way in which you hope your artwork will change our perception of the world?
I wish that I could be someone else for a day, just to know how someone else sees the world. I want to know if my green is the same as someone else's green or if maybe someone else's green is what I've been calling yellow my entire life. We don't all see the same way, I'm sure of that. But I want to know the extent to which our visions differ. I have so many questions and I want answers. Why can I look at one piece of art and think it's brilliant, while another person looks at it and claims that the colors don't work? Is the sky the same blue to me and another person? Is my idea of "dark" the same as his view? What is the difference between what I see in the mirror and what she sees when she looks at me? I'll paint a self-portrait and think I got it just right, but someone will come by and tell me that I messed up my eyes. Maybe we're just seeing my eyes a different way.
Everyone wonders this to some extent and there's no real solution. I can't just hop into someone else's body for a day and figure out all of the answers. I wish I could, but I can't and neither can anyone else, so we'll all just keep wondering for the rest of everything. This kills me a little bit. I want to help those other people with the same questions. But I can't loan them my body, not even for a little bit.
And so instead, I make art. It's my way of helping, my attempt to explain. I don't know what anyone else is seeing, but I know what I'm seeing and that's what goes into my art. My self-portraits are how I see myself. My still-lives are how I see the relationships that objects have with each other. Even my abstract pieces show how I see colors, how I see textures, how I see the world. And when someone looks at my art, I want him or her to see this. I want to make people realize that we don't all see the same. You see one thing, she sees another thing and I see something that neither you nor she will ever see. Except in my art and when you and she see it in my art, I hope you see a slightly altered world.
Maybe my world is only a little bit different, maybe it's miles apart. Either way, I want to share it.
I wish that I could be someone else for a day, just to know how someone else sees the world. I want to know if my green is the same as someone else's green or if maybe someone else's green is what I've been calling yellow my entire life. We don't all see the same way, I'm sure of that. But I want to know the extent to which our visions differ. I have so many questions and I want answers. Why can I look at one piece of art and think it's brilliant, while another person looks at it and claims that the colors don't work? Is the sky the same blue to me and another person? Is my idea of "dark" the same as his view? What is the difference between what I see in the mirror and what she sees when she looks at me? I'll paint a self-portrait and think I got it just right, but someone will come by and tell me that I messed up my eyes. Maybe we're just seeing my eyes a different way.
Everyone wonders this to some extent and there's no real solution. I can't just hop into someone else's body for a day and figure out all of the answers. I wish I could, but I can't and neither can anyone else, so we'll all just keep wondering for the rest of everything. This kills me a little bit. I want to help those other people with the same questions. But I can't loan them my body, not even for a little bit.
And so instead, I make art. It's my way of helping, my attempt to explain. I don't know what anyone else is seeing, but I know what I'm seeing and that's what goes into my art. My self-portraits are how I see myself. My still-lives are how I see the relationships that objects have with each other. Even my abstract pieces show how I see colors, how I see textures, how I see the world. And when someone looks at my art, I want him or her to see this. I want to make people realize that we don't all see the same. You see one thing, she sees another thing and I see something that neither you nor she will ever see. Except in my art and when you and she see it in my art, I hope you see a slightly altered world.
Maybe my world is only a little bit different, maybe it's miles apart. Either way, I want to share it.
