Merle,
Thanks, great question, and cuts to the heart. (ouch) ;-)
The difference between Appreciation and Understanding?
Appreciation is being overwhelmed by love and warmth, uncanny MYSTERY, and
community, even the community of just ONE other person, the artist, but the
artist speaks for *A WORLD*; Understanding is closed, fixed; it's "I GOT it
now! THIS'S it! No, it's not THAT!, it's THIS!" That makes art a slave, like
the study and practice of writing in English literature is only a litany of
examples of sentence-diagramming?
Understanding is really good, it helps us with technology, from cooking to
avionics.
It's HARD to share an understanding: it takes work on the part of the other to
"understand", and work on the part of the one expressing, to make things CLEAR.
Understanding also requires grasping. It's no accident that we say, "I don't
grasp it", when we mean we don't understand something. And, once we have an
understanding, we grasp it the tighter! It was hard-won, after all. ;-)
Appreciation is made available as a GIFT, a loving gift, as something we share,
but may have forgotten about, or which we have not yet discovered; its currency
and its liveliness depends on the SKILL of the artist, her intent, and the
receptiveness of the other. We carry it, afterwards, and it changes us
forever, both artist and viewer/listener.
Understanding does not change us!, but we carry it nonetheless. It can be
weighty, until we ...apply it.
That's what comes to mind, in the moment.
Tnx again, asking, dear.
--Joe
PS In all politeness, recommended by Edgar, I include ALL your post below.
But I have snipped my old post off. Can't we let bygones be bygones? This is
Art, too, you-all know. And I'm a technician and an artist. And a
nudist-Buddhist-balloonist-flutist, too (well, some of those things: I'm afraid
of heights).
> Merle Lester <merlewiitpom@...> wrote:
>
> joe..
>
> i often hear the expression : "i know what i like"....referring to the art,
> music, poetry, literature.... yes well that's ok..
>
> what is the difference between understanding and appreciation?..
>
> .yes you can appreciate but don't you want to understand...artists tell
> stories...it's all story telling...it's still about understanding... what are
> they telling you?...
>
> Â it's insane to use the word like..
>
> .if you are having a conversation with some one you do not say i like that
> conversation..you are communicating..this is with all the arts as well...
>
> in fact it's all communication joe..even in science... eh?... surely..
>
> .we only live one joe so to speak if you want to live on the surface of
> reality ..fine
>
> Â however there are layers and the layers make life ever so more
> interesting..digging deep..
>
> .expressing deeply, feeling deeply, knowing deeply..
>
> .superficiality has a place however it does not maketh for the renaissance
> man...you know that...
>
> digging deep deep into the earth to find the gold joe..
>
> the gold of existence..
> .brushing by a work of art as "oh i like that."
>
> ..jesus holy jesus who could possibly be satisfied with just that?....
>
> a society butterfly, an art wanker, a red neck illiterate..
>
> certainly not you joe.
>
> .if you know zen then you know there is a depth to all things...and digging
> for that gold is where it's at..
> .merle
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