You said once that you aspired to meaningless in your painting,and I put it aside as one of those things I didn't understand and consequently could not respond to. But your story of the morning light returns me to the question. The surprise of things transformed by light is what I do,and I see now that it is not something which inherently contains "meaning" in a cultural sense,even if you can recognize everything in the work. There are mornings and afternoons when everyone should be walking around agape at the transformation of the ordinary. KAte Sullivan In a message dated 1/16/09 11:26:47 AM, [email protected] writes:
> You can't think your way to the aesthetic. The aesthetic is not > reasonable or rational. I'm not at all sure why we expect works of art, of any > medium, to produce the aesthetic response, any more than any other experience. > A few weeks ago, in traffic, I was stunned momentarily by the patterns of > light and shade on a truck chassis rolling along next to me. Then for a few > minutes everything seemed so "enchanted" by a display of morning light. > Nothing was really different, it was the same old dreary Chicago expressway and > heavy traffic, but all utility or purpose seemed to vanish and I was left with a > sensation of the beautiful. I say I experienced a moment of > meaninglessness, a stripping away of purpose and utility. I was not nuts, or drugged or > unaware of the vexing traffic. And later, I couldn't even figure out why I was > so affected by the sunlight and shadow on a mundane clump of steel and > wheel. There was nothing there I had not already seen > countless times. My mind was open, maybe, to just accepting the reality I > experienced without any judgment (or pre-taste). For a moment I was shadow > and sunlight. It was the fleeting oceanic union of self and other. The moment > of pure make-believe. > > WC > > > - ************** A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1215855013x1201028747/aol?redir=http ://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072%26hmpgID=62%26bcd=D ecemailfooterNO62)
