Here are some unedited responses to what I wrote last month about what artists are trying or not trying to say with their painting:

Cathy writes:

Hi just got a copy of your newsletter, really informative and interesting, thought I would reply to this topic about communicating in art. By the way, I loved your paintings.

I believe everyone is communicating with their art, it may not be real deep or need to be, but that is a primal function of art, it is a revealing form of communication. Even if what you are saying is “I think this is pretty.”

When we look back at artists from other time periods, we read things into their work from the subject matter and color usage, we know something about those people and their lives by what they have chosen or been paid to paint and the way they painted it. Part of the artist comes through in all your choices, subject, medium, style, are all ways of communicating. All colors have an unspoken meaning, next time you go shopping notice how the colors on the packaging are “communicating” something about the product and how the producer wants you to feel about the product.

Even the composition of a painting tells you something about how you are going to feel about the piece, the way it is cropped, whether it is close up or far away, at the top or bottom of the surface, or off to the side. The texture of the paint also reveals something about the subject and the artist. How they move as they paint, how fast or slow they paint can sometimes be obvious from the way it is painted. Does a Jackson Pollack have a different feeling from an Andrew Wyeth? A painter may not know all these things as they paint, but just the same as a book can be analyzed for themes and how it relates to its time period and what it says abut life at that time and the writer, so does a painting.

Often the artist may have no idea what they are communicating but that does not mean they are not communicating. In fact if you were to analyze what you see in their use of color and composition, medium and style, they may not like what they are communicating. If you only know 10 vocabulary words but you know the meaning of them all and you write a story that uses all the words properly, it may end up being simplistic, but it is true to what the writer was trying to say because they understood the words they were using. If you write a story using a thousand words but only really understand 100 of them, and you misuse the rest, substituting delighted for angry because you don’t know what you are saying, you will confuse your audience and not communicate your intent.

Many artists intuitively know the meaning of the color, composition and styles they are using. So they are not confusing the audience, but they may not be able to articulate what the communicated effect of their painting is, that might not be part of their gift - to see into the painting for meaning. For them not to know that, does not take away from the power of the painting or its affect on people. What does make a difference is when an artist does not know the meaning of the things they are using, the color, texture, images or composition is not done with purpose, but is arbitrarily laid down, usually those artists have hit and miss sessions. Sometimes it all lines up and sometimes they don’t know why but it falls flat. Knowing something about what you are communicating helps with the way you are delivering the message.

It is an critic or art historians job to find the communication or meaning in a painting, to analyse “what the artist is trying to say” to tie it into its time period and allow it to reflect meaning on it. So for many artists being asked, what does your painting mean, a good response would be “that’s for the art historians to decide.”

Cathy Carey
element@abac.com
www.arstudiosandiego.com

and from Gail:

Bravo for you! I have been saying the same thing since I first discovered that I love to paint. Early on, I knew I didn’t like gory subjects or negative thoughts displayed on the surface and put out there for all to enjoy? Abhor? Titillate? The worse subjects the most controversial ways of executing a painting or art piece seems to get the most notice. Who in life has the last laugh? The humble and gentle or the violent? There are so many Clichés out there…so many artists and art critics think it best to enhance the work with flowing words and statements of over the top creation for “punch” and self promotion.

The best I can think of to say is “Stay true to yourself” no matter what. To me, the World needs more good and positive thinking and action and less of the negative and sensational. As you say, plenty of people will disagree no matter which stand you take in life. Audrey made a statement about painting for the “art market” and this is exactly what this all means. You have talked about “Do I paint for the love of it and sacrifice the money earned from painting for the requests of decorators, print clients, etc.”? She has found a balance but that part of her that paints for only the money and not doing her best work is the subjective part of being an artist. I think it best to know that your artistic effort/“work” is being appreciated, bought and loved by those who enjoy it whether a piece is done as you think “my best work” or purchased as “my work for a living”.

I feel commission work is the same as pleasing “art market” clients and commission work is no less “my best work” than “art market” wishes. You are creating art and that is the LOVE of what you are doing. I have lived by this saying… “love what you do and you will be doing what you love”. We have to admit that in making a living, all business people sacrifice something, leisure time, time with your babies/kids, spending some time just “hating your job”. Finding the “balance” is as good as it gets for those who have to make a living. There are only a fortunate few who make a good living painting what they love just as there are few in the business world who love every aspect of their job. Whatever subject you paint, whatever reason you have for painting it is yours to own as an individual. How you express that in words or deeds is who and what you are. No one else is responsible for moving your hand, your brush or the thinking that produces a piece of art work. Work in your own way, love what you are doing, put it out there for the visual world and let it stand on its own. Art finds a home and price point whether you qualify it with grand statements or no statements at all. Your audience either loves the work visually or not. Just because you embellish the experience with grand poetry and reasons for choosing and painting the subject does not make the work any more or less than it is.

To the art critic the piece has to have a grand idea behind it to be noticed or valued…life is hype, embellishment, something on a grand scale..its the newspaper headline, its the “edited” TV program all put out there for us to believe because it sounds sensational or looks real. But it all comes down to what we as individuals believe or understand what the basic truth is ..for me, I love to paint and to heck with “saying anything about what I’m ”saying” in my painting…its there, if you like it, I’m pleased, if you buy it, I’m not only pleased, I’m happy!!. The substance of a painting is not what the art critic tells you is “what the artist is trying to say” It is in the eye of the beholder…like it, buy it and take it home to enjoy. Gail

Robin writes: "Hi Phil -
This latest question really struck me. I've been mulling this over myself lately.

I like my work. I like my subjects and I really enjoy the way the paint goes down, when it is going well. Then I enter a contest here and there and I get rejected and feel like I am not making any real "statement" worthy of awards or recognition.
And when I get out of my regular mode of painting... that is doing what inpsired me to start in the first place, and doing something instead that might make a statement, it flops.

I too have a very hard time expressing why I paint. And when I put together a body of work, it surely isn't a statement of my political beliefs or an interpretation of the fundamental oneness with the light of the sun and stars blah blah blah blah.
Perhaps representational painters do not need to "say something" or have some deep meaningful explanation for the jars of fermented animal parts they (didn't) hang in the musuem exhibition. Our work is its own statement, a recording (therefore interpretation) of our world and our place in it.

I do not do a "statement" - I refuse to because the work should speak for itself. And I am selling... so maybe the critics don't see much to excite, but the public is drawn to what I do, they can relate to the work, so I think perhaps that is all the recognition I need.

Thanks - I think I needed to work through that after a recent rejection"'

Laura from North Carolina writes: "I lost your email newsletter, but wanted to reply to you anyway to your question regarding Paintings "Telling a Story". You mentioned "don't we just want to paint good paintings"? And for a long time, and sometimes still now, I would have to agree with that statement.

But, sometimes, only those perfect times, the perfect paintings, that is not necessarily true. However, and this is a big however, the ones that "tell a story" END UP that way, you cannot start out TRYING to tell a story, it just happens. If you try from the onset, it would be like trying to define Shroedinger's cat. How could you possibly know the story you are trying to tell if you haven't lived it yet?

"Each painting has its own way of evolving; when the painting is finished, the subject reveals itself."

I read that quote, just "randomly" (nothing is really random, after all) after I completed a painting recently, it is my best so far (I'm 41). I started this painting ten or so years ago, believe it or not. (Sadly until the past year or so I wasn't able to dedicate myself to my art full time, that's why it took so long). Again, I never set out to tell a story, not even with my masterpiece (smile). But as I NAILED it recently, finished her in all her glory, stood back, I could see the last ten years of my life, the joy, the pain, the growth, some secrets, some beautiful light bouncing on one of the pains in the windowsill, where did that come from, did my arm actually do that, wow, this is my life........it came from inside and now I see it on the canvas. Could I ever have planned the story I see in it? No, of course not. Would it be as beautiful had I finished it in a more timely fashion? Of course not.

So, the question still remains.........