FIND

photo by {studio S}

The book of “Theories and documents of Contemporary Art: a sourcebook of Artists’ writings’ shows Robert Motherwell’s mention that “Structures are found in the interaction of the body-mind and the external world; and the body-mind is active and aggressive in finding them. As Picasso says, there is no use looking at random: to find is the thing.”

Through the experience of many drawings, I realized that to find an object for the drawing was important. According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, one of the meanings of ‘object’ is that something or someone that produces interest, attention, or some other stated feeling. An object for drawing is not only a thing what we see, but it is a subject what we feel about. I believe to get a good object for drawing is to find an object that attracts a creator’s feeling. Not only for a drawing but for all kind of two or three dimensional creation, it is important that how an artist conceives the conception of a form and composition through an object. To express what you feel an object is not easy because it needs lots of practice to find attention or some other stated feeling from the object.

<1>

photo by {studio S}

Compare to <1> and <2>, the picture of <1> which is easy to figure out this immediately because it is common view to us. But, <2> shows a part of image from <1>. Because <2> does not show whole image, cropped image from the whole picture, it is more interesting and grabs our attention. I cropped the image of <2> out from the image of <1>. The image of <2> is a more simplified relationship on form relationship and a stronger and more powerful composition than the image of <1>.

<2>

photo by {studio S}

Instead of taking the image from an object or sight, I prefer to take an image cropped out, deducted, or subtracted by the perception of form. Motherwell mentioned also that “The aesthetic is the sine qua non for art: if a work is not aesthetic, it is not art by definition. But in this stage of the creative process, the strictly aesthetic-which is the sensuous aspect of the world ceases to be the chief end in view. The function of the aesthetic instead becomes that of a medium, a means for getting at the infinite background of feeling in order to condense it into an object of perception. We feel through the senses, and everyone knows that the content of art is feeling; it is the creation of an object for sensing that is the artist’s task; and it is the qualities of this object that constitute its felt content. Feelings are “objective” nor “subjective,” but both, since all “objects” or “things” are the result of an interaction between the body-mind and the external world. “Body-mind” and “external world” are themselves sharp concepts only for the purposes of critical discourse, and from the standpoint of a stone are perhaps valid but certainly unimportant distinctions. It is natural to rearrange or invent in order to bring about states of feeling that we like, just as a new tenant refurnishes a house.”