FILLING THE VISUAL GAP

An Artist's Perspective on Art

By Susan C. Dunlap

copyright 1989

Introduction

Art work is silent. It's silence challenges all who attempt to read it and is an omnipresent barrier to be hurdled. Two major difficulties emerge as a consequence of this silence. One is that, with rare exception, art historians study the work of deceased artists – a notoriously silent group of people. The other is that artist's have, in part, gravitated to painting as a mode of expression because of it's quietness.

Paintings talk back to the artist in color, form, and mood, not in words or some other form of audio communication. Over the long haul of a long career, the artist may loose verbal skills while gaining painterly ones. In any case he doesn't often stop long enough to thoroughly develop an artistic thesis or articulate precisely the nature of his personal compulsions – the very ones which drive him to create. The literature is quite sparse on this topic – hard to find and nearly nonexistent.

The principal goal of this document is to offer an artist's point of view and then use that point of view to suggest and justify a new way of reading art. The goal is to clean a dirty window that stands as an otherwise transparent barrier between the artist and those who view his work. The merits of considering a new approach to reading art are justified by the dynamic nature of it - it is continuously evolving which requires an equally evolving approach to understanding it.

In the first part I explain how my perception of life affects my experience of it. I describe how I relate to visual stimulus personally and make use of it artistically. This material provides a foundation to support the main goal and may help those who relate to the visual elements of life using a different premise become familiar with an artistic mode of perception.

The second part is devoted to applying an artistic point of view to the reading of art. Basically, gallery walls are adorned with framed books which can be approached in much the same way. Art work is a form of communication, documenting an individual's point of view and state of mind. Studying it is an effort rewarded by giving the reader an intimate glimpse into another person's perspective. Reading it exposes the broad dynamics playing themselves out in another person's mind and reveals areas where our response to life may be either distinct or synchronized. Even if I do not relate to the subject matter depicted or care for the selection of colors or have any desire to emulate the method of execution, I still do my utmost to decipher what it is that this person is communicating. In the end I believe there are advantages to approaching art as if it were a very private message from the artist to the viewer. Considering the lack of acquaintance between the artist and his audience, such bits of correspondence are indeed a privilege to read.

In the third part I apply the artistic point of view to an examination of various aspects of life we all share. What does life look like to a person when gazing through the artistic lens? This material is about what it means to be a sight-reading person foraging for visual stimulus in today's world. I suggest a way of interpreting the physical and artistic environment we have created for each other.

If for a moment we consider an urban space as a conceptual piece executed by a team of diverse artists, are we pleased with their work? Or do we routinely justify the construction and maintenance of spaces which are, visually speaking, full of weeds? Perhaps we actually model the urban environment after wilderness without even recognizing this is so.

The legitimacy of this material is based on the assumption that a visual read of the physical world is just as legitimate and important to understand as an economic analysis of the market-place. I interpret the work of visual entrepreneurs, giving it a linguistic struture that will enable us to take our visual temperature.