Ways of Seeing & Beyond

We spend our artistic lives accumulating ways of seeing... what's next?

In my recent Tweets I've been mulling over different ways artists' approach their subject matter. I considered two different ways: "the impartial gaze" & "emotional interaction".  You probably get the gist of each from their titles, so you can tell they are at opposite ends of the engagement process. 

More interestingly, I'm a big subscriber to the idea that as practicing artists we create a large tool bag for ourselves, not just consisting of material things, but full of different ways of seeing. This amazing tool bag is always at our disposal and out of it we can pull what we need: eg pace / ambling, shape depiction / creating 3D form, energy / reservation, an impartial gaze / emotional interaction etc. 

The question this begs is HOW? How do these different 'ways of seeing' get into our virtual tool bag? How do we put aside our ingrained habits, our old instincts, our past ways of thinking in order to create room to selectively use different 'ways of seeing'? My belief is that it is through the process of creating artwork that new ways of seeing open up to us, and whilst engaging meaningfully and often in artistic practice we are more and more able to step beyond past thinking processes to embrace the new.

But to end with another question: What if we approach our subject matter with neither an impartial gaze, nor emotional interaction? Could it be that our 'ways of seeing' tool bag can get so full and heavy it is cumbersome? What is it that takes the place of the tool bag if we put it to the side and create without it?

Thank you for following this far....it's where I wanted to get to all along! It's a bit of a leap but let's use the term 'INFINITE INTELLIGENCE' to answer that last question. I'm very excited about this topic, and I'm going to make it the subject of a future blog! In the meantime Chapter 10 of 'Think and Grow Rich' by Napoleon Hill explains this concept beautifully! 

Enjoy!