Dear Pablo, I wanted to respond to your recent article, Therapy and Disclosure in a Hermetic Art World. The matters you discussed have been central to my life as an artist. Briefly, I practiced art therapy for 30 years in a children's psychiatric hospital. I have also been painting for over 50 years. My art practice has been guided by the belief (similarly suggested in your own article) that my paintings are a "tool of communication with [my] own self---and with others." I firmly believe that humans may have different experiences in the world, but the range and depth of emotional experience is very common to us all. Consequently, my work is about emotional truth (whether in narrative form or abstraction). The thread that connects all my work is emotion. Emotions are poorly represented by language, unless you are a poet or novelist and that is your art form. Yet, emotional language finds a natural home in color and paint application, or in narrative figuration (i.e. a renaissance crucifixtion). However, direct emotional expression is often held in contempt: I believe that this is an outgrowth and residue of our culture that places macho behavior at a premium. In any case, as you said and as it stands, "Betraying vulnerabilities would appear to be a way to admit weakness." Thank you for speaking out about this matter. I think that the 'hermetic' artworld stands to lose a great deal as the result of these biases. After all, an artist cannot be an honest conduit of raw emotion or deep struggle unless they actually experience it. In other words, how can an honest artist pretend to be distress free? I struggle with this question.
In any case, my art practice has been fulfilling to me by it's ability to enable me to find myself in the process of making art. My paintings may or may not be of interest to others. After all, who really cares about me as an individual. However, I believe that most of us experience a common thread of struggle over the course of our lives. If that struggle is mirrored in a work of art that transcends the individual, then that work of art is worthy of an audience--even if it is uncomfortable to witness.
Dear Pablo, I wanted to respond to your recent article, Therapy and Disclosure in a Hermetic Art World. The matters you discussed have been central to my life as an artist. Briefly, I practiced art therapy for 30 years in a children's psychiatric hospital. I have also been painting for over 50 years. My art practice has been guided by the belief (similarly suggested in your own article) that my paintings are a "tool of communication with [my] own self---and with others." I firmly believe that humans may have different experiences in the world, but the range and depth of emotional experience is very common to us all. Consequently, my work is about emotional truth (whether in narrative form or abstraction). The thread that connects all my work is emotion. Emotions are poorly represented by language, unless you are a poet or novelist and that is your art form. Yet, emotional language finds a natural home in color and paint application, or in narrative figuration (i.e. a renaissance crucifixtion). However, direct emotional expression is often held in contempt: I believe that this is an outgrowth and residue of our culture that places macho behavior at a premium. In any case, as you said and as it stands, "Betraying vulnerabilities would appear to be a way to admit weakness." Thank you for speaking out about this matter. I think that the 'hermetic' artworld stands to lose a great deal as the result of these biases. After all, an artist cannot be an honest conduit of raw emotion or deep struggle unless they actually experience it. In other words, how can an honest artist pretend to be distress free? I struggle with this question.
In any case, my art practice has been fulfilling to me by it's ability to enable me to find myself in the process of making art. My paintings may or may not be of interest to others. After all, who really cares about me as an individual. However, I believe that most of us experience a common thread of struggle over the course of our lives. If that struggle is mirrored in a work of art that transcends the individual, then that work of art is worthy of an audience--even if it is uncomfortable to witness.