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Reading Art: Finding Your Pink Giraffe
By Deborah | November 13, 2007
I was listening to one of our favorite collectors explore a Skynear piece on the back wall of the gallery the other day and it got me to thinking about how people read art. After several minutes of contemplation, our collector exclaimed that she could see a pink giraffe in the abstract landscape. Jumping to my feet to check it out, darned if she wasn’t right! A pink giraffe was smack dab in the lower center of the piece. We laughed about it and went on to discuss other pieces of art.
This encounter got me to thinking. How is it that people see such different things in a single piece of art? We’ve probably had two or three hundred people look at that piece and no one else had mentioned seeing a pink giraffe. Is it a reflection of ones own input? Perhaps, it is created in the mind’s eye? Webster’s Dictionary defines the mind’s eye as “the mental faculty of conceiving imaginary or recollected scenes.” If that is the case, then are we conjuring up images each time we look at a piece of art based upon our own creativity and not necessarily that of the artist’s?
Skynear says the best thing he can do when he is working on a piece is to “get out of the way and let the art happen!” This being said, one could conclude that great art is often less intentional than it is accidental. Perhaps that is what we love best about art…the hidden personal surprises revealed when we allow our imagination to play free.
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