I subscribe to a couple of interesting 'thoughts of the day' type of items, one from Forbes.com Newsletters. In today's email came this Daily Thought: "...An artist carries on throughout his life a mysterious, uninterrupted conversation with his public. - Maurice Chevalier...."
Chevalier was a singer, dancer and actor - a performance artist if-you-will, but his words are so true no matter in what medium an artist works. Think of these examples:
- sculptor Auguste Rodin - a great site, the Rodin Museum in Pennsylvania, U.S.
- painter Paul Klee "...There are a good 4,000 works by Paul Klee stored in the Art Depository of the Zentrum Paul Klee - the world’s most important collection of paintings, water colours and drawings by this artist...."
- writers William Shakespeare [don't really need a web link for this example] and a favorite contemporary author of mine, Clive Cussler, my late father and I shared a love of the Dirk Pitt adventures
- architect Frank Lloyd Wright certainly speaks volumes in his "house size" art designs
In the above quote attributed to Mr. Chevalier I found two truisms: one in relation to the artist's lifelong work of expressing whatever, and two, in relation to the works that the artist produces...these by nature carry their message long after the life of the artist. In conversation with artist friends when talking about our work and selling our work, what we truly hope for is that a particular work will find a "home." A painting, a sculpture, a design in building or vehicle, a written work [plays, poetry, prose], a song, music produced by instrumentation...all of these works are meant to convey something from the heart and mind of their producer that is then meant to connect with the heart and mind of the viewer and/or hearer.
Art is meant to be experienced beyond the tactile...it is the one thing produced that is meant to transcend the brain and go into that nebulous realm where the "we" in us resides. And so, as Mr. Chevalier said, it is "mysterious."
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