The Story in Art

All art is fundamentally media for telling a story.  Visual art, whether iconic, representational, or abstract, is a stimulus for the creation of an internal story by the viewer.  This story may be quite different from the story that the artist used as the basis for creating the art, but it is still valid.

Consider my painting End of the Day, shown above. To one viewer it may be a reminder of a fun day at the beach, with more to come.  For another it may symbolize the end of a career, with all the emotional changes that brings. 

Abstract art is especially open to interpretation.  It may be an expression of an artist’s deep emotional feelings, or an attempt to fit his chaotic life into a structured framework.

The viewer, however, brings his own bundle of emotional biases to the work and may have feelings ranging from pleasure to a cathartic release.  In the act of viewing the work, the viewer subconsciously creates a personal story to fit the art to his personal experience.

The Subject of Titles

Many artists feel that assigning titles to a work biases the viewer’s internal story.  Others feel that numbering works subordinates their own emotional contribution.  I try to give works broad titles that allow a wide range of interpretation.  Sometimes I will put a work away for a while.  When I view it detached from the creative process, I scan for subtle hints created by the act of painting.  I use these as the basis for the title.

I had a painting that I titled this way.  A woman studied the painting for a very long time and then came to me and said, “I don’t understand the title.  I would have named it differently.”  I asked her why.  “Well, as I tried to find the reason for your title, I noticed some patterns in the brush strokes that reminded me of a time from my childhood.  I had forgotten all about it until now.”  I told her that her interpretation was correct – for her!

Once I made the mistake of explaining the basis for a title to a viewer.  She then acted as an expert, going around to explain to all the other viewers, just what I intended.  They never had a chance to read their own story into the work.  I’ve never explained a title since.

Ultimately, both the creation and observation of art are highly personal experiences.  Done well, art yields a benefit to both the artist and the viewer.

The Process as Product

If an abstract painting is not about an image, what is it about?

I am interested in the relationships of color, both to each other and to our emotional states and spritual beliefs.  I constantly experiment with color and technique to see if one combination is stronger at suggesting an emotion than another. 

I'm intrigued by the religious significance of color.  In several primitive  religions and some sophisticatecd eastern religions, color represents the key elements of their belief.   I play with these identities to see if the interplay of color resonates with my feelings.  In this sense, some of my abstracts are truly representational, just not in the sense of western civilization.

In my case, the process is the product.