Wherever the Wind Takes Me – At Principle Gallery
The worst sin that can be committed against the artist is to take him at his word, to see in his work a fulfillment instead of a horizon.
–Henry Miller, The Cosmological Eye (1939)
Love these words from Henry Miller. I think most people, artists included, look at a piece of art and see it as an endpoint rather than a jumping off point. I would like to think that my work serves both as an invitation and starting point for the viewer. My hope is that my little world as I present it is welcoming enough that they easily enter and feel comfortable. Once there, my wish is that they begin to explore both the space in which they are and the self they see in it. To start an inner journey of some sort, one that might last only for a few moments or for a lifetime.
That’s asking a lot, I know. And it’s not fully in my mind when I am at work because at that point I am fully engaged in my own inner journey. It’s only after I step back and try to view a piece with a more dispassionate eye that I begin to recognize if a piece has that potential in it.
A horizon to pursue.
A starting point of a journey.
Some do. Some don’t. And maybe some that I think do, don’t. And vice versa.
One never knows for sure. And that is the beauty of art. Some see totality and some see endless potentiality.
That’s all the time I have this morning. I see a horizon forming and need to get moving towards it.
Here’s a song from Michael Nesmith, best known as one of the Monkees. This is his take on Beyond the Blue Horizon, a song that was first performed by Jeanette MacDonald in 1930. It’s quirky but still works for me this morning.
Redtree Times 