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insite : : kevan nitzberg

 

the art interface

Hyde Park, London, 1890 by Camiile Pissaro [1]

A warm, sun drenched afternoon is as good an excuse as anyone would need to take a stroll along a tree-lined walkway, feeling the faint, cool breezes that continually rustle through overhanging foliage.

The Sisters by Frank Benson, 1899 [2]

The laughter of children playing rises over the sound of leaves blowing overhead, their voices adding to the comfort and sense of well-being that the day is imbued with.

Early Spring by Wally Brants, 1960 [3]

As seasons pass, warm southerly breezes change to stronger and more northerly winds; the landscape is blanketed in cooler blues and whites of a wintry vista. 

Our literal surroundings, of course, are not the extent of the interface that exists between experience and art. Mood, thought and raw emotion are also subjects for artists. Everyday experiences, sensory awareness, associations with our surroundings and each other, have found visual expression in artworks in museums, galleries, commercial buildings, outdoor public spaces, residences and online. Art promotes reflection, taking us back to revisit times, places and relationships that are both real and imagined. Visual reminiscences and moments of reflection explore these backwaters of the art/human interface. 

That interface also allows us to find a voice with which to communicate our own views, either by finding works that seem to resonate with our own beliefs and perceptions, or by giving us the opportunity to share those perspectives in our own work as artists. Those perspectives may take the form of  images that allow us to peek at views not normally available to us, such as the molecular vantage point of Bruce Gaber [4] below, or Teresa A. Larsen’s sculpture of an HIV molecule [5].

[4]

[5]

As well as experiencing form, structure and color at the microscopic level, there are also additional realms that may be navigated by traversing unfamiliar paths. Artworks that provide us with windows to such places may reveal vistas conceived with magical powers, suggestive of unseen forces just beyond reach of our plane of existence. The shadowy figure that quickly disappears out of sight; or a feeling of cold, outstretched fingers that comes as if from nowhere when walking down a dimly lit corridor... a sense of ancestors felt in places of family heritage... art that recreates mysterious treks too deep within for conscious recollection, but tugs at half hidden sensibilities and perceptions. These are human qualities, sadly missing from much art world discourse.

Art speaks to us in terms of both the knowable and the unknown; that which we have concretized in our own worldview, and that which we can only begin to comprehend. The inner eye reaches out to give meaning to icons of a real and virtual landscape. This interface allows us to identify our existence, and our relationship to a totality of possibilities. How far we travel in that space is not constrained by means of transportation or physical obstacles. It is only our imagination and level of inquisitiveness that puts roadblocks in the way.

[6]

[7]

Notes:
[1] http://sunsite.dk/cgfa/pissarro/index.html
[2] http://sunsite.dk/cgfa/b/p-benson2.htm
[3] http://www.heritage.nf.ca/arts/agnl/brants.html
[4] http://arttech.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scripps.edu%2Fpub%2Folson-web%2Fpeople%2Fgoodsell%2Fmgs_art%2Fmgs_art2%2Findex.html
[5]  http://arttech.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scripps.edu%2Fpub%2Folson-web%2Fpeople%2Fgoodsell%2Fmgs_art%2Fmgs_art2%2Findex.html
[6] http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~dbi9m/fantasy/dreamweavers/index.html
[7] http://www.internetposterstore.com/cgi-bin/buy?i=artists-261320&c=10137269

Kevan Nitzberg is an art educationalist and Minnesota Educator of the Year, 2000. To suggest a subject matter you would like searched, click here to send a message.

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