[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking.

Baren Digest              Thursday, 22 April 1999      Volume 07 : Number 537

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From: agatha <agatha@uswest.net>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 18:39:33 -0700
Subject: [Baren 4130] Re: Abstraction & meaning 

i wasn't addressing any particular post with that ramble, just expressing my
take on the representational vs abstract dilemma.  i thought that your comments
from your artist's statement were thoughtful and astute, graham.

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From: Gary Luedtke <GLuedtke@compuserve.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 21:50:18 -0400
Subject: [Baren 4131] Re: Abstraction & meaning 

Georga wrote:
>  anyway  the reason i decided to write was just to say that i  find this
> conversation interesting and very stimulating and and im enjoying hearing 
> everyones views  

georga,   well spoken.   I agree.   Dave  has uncovered an interesting
topic.  I have the same opinion as Dave, in that I like to know what I'm
looking at, and also in that it is perhaps that I don't _know_ how to look
at abstract art.   I can find no handles there for me to grasp and no
desire to look much at it, but there is a possibility that I have not
learned how to do so.   Mary, I found some illumination in your posting,
also very articulate.   I think you have more light to shed on this if you
would, as I am often a poor student, never did well with abstractions of
any sort.   But if there is a way to "see" something here, I'd sure like to
know more about it.

    Anything broken down into parts not normally seen that way, can appear
abstract.   The order they are arranged in as we normally encounter them is
what we are familiar with and know as representational.   It just seems
that in order for me to have a compelling attachment or admiration for a
work of art, I must see some order there that I am familiar with to some
extent, and that's where the artist's creativity comes into play.  
Something recognizeable, but also something new.  It is the newness _added_
to a familiar scene that intrigues me.   I think where that line is drawn,
figuratively speaking, is determined by personal experience and intuitive
inclination.  Some prefer that line be drawn farther back at the elementary
level, hence perhaps more abstract,  and some that it be drawn on more
familiar ground, hence representational.  I am in that category, I expect. 
Michael is in the other, and perhaps this is what Michael is saying in his
explanatory posting of several days back.   He is reaching back into the
elements which perhaps compose our recognizeable world, and which are not
recognizeable in themselves, and using this to express his feelings.   How
this arrangement makes him feel is subjective, how it makes others feel is
completely predicated on their interpretive disposition.   

    The type of art I find myself drawn to, is probably more sentimental. 
It has a strongly reminiscent quality to it, but reminiscent in a newly
illuminating way.   I guess that's just where my own tastes have drawn the
line.   Perhaps representational art is based on the more solid footing of
a common language, whereas abstract or non-representational art is based on
creating a_ new_ language.  We can hear a song in a foreign language and
still recognize a beautiful melody, though in my opinion the song is more
beautiful if you also understand the words.

   I will wait for further instruction and enlightenment.

Gary

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From: "John/Michelle Morrell" <jmorrell@ptialaska.net>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 19:26:25 -0800
Subject: [Baren 4132] Michael's Prints 

For all of you who are so in Michael's prints, he is sending me a CD to
circulate.  (Michael - I am still waiting for it!)  If you would like to see
his work  in, I hope, a bigger format and see, I hope, how he sharpens his
tools, etc., please send me your postal mailing address and I will make a
list and send the CD on to you.

(Send your address to jmorrell@ptialaska.net)

As a postscript, I am not capable of abstract art, but react subjectively to
things I enjoy, and do enjoy abstraction (but not all abstraction).  I have
been through the classes and learned to b.s. on composition, etc., but what
the critics think is good is not always what I like.    Perhaps this is all
just conditioning--what we are capable of enjoying.  What other people see
and don't see in the world has always fascinated, amused, and at times
saddened me!

Best regards to all,

Michelle Morrell

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End of Baren Digest V7 #537
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