Unique Characteristics of Visual Art

Of all the arts, only the static visual arts, painting, drawing, photography and sculpture, etc., exist and can be experienced sequentially and continuously through both time and space. For example, hang a painting in a room and it will continue to be there unless in is moved away. It could remain continuously in place for years.

That continuity is comforting in a world of change. I find it comforting both with art in my own home and art I return to visit in museums.

Other non-visual and non-spatial art forms do not exist continuously through space. The experience of films, videos, plays, performances, live or recorded music and literature all have a beginning, middle and end of the experience. Although they can be repeated or replayed, none will remain in place over time. Sure, books and printed matter remain, but the experience of the literature only exists when the work is actually read or recited.

Sculpture, paintings and other tactile visual art forms, such as mosaics or stained glass offer both a visual and tactile experience. The oils from my skin (assuming my hands are really clean even) can harm a painting over time – and so I refrain from touching a Monet or Van Gogh – but I know that those heavy brushstrokes have a texture I could feel if I did.

There are three different modes of learning. Some people learn best from aural/verbal instruction, others are visual learners and still others are kinetic, meaning lessons that involve touch, such as building things are easier for them to grasp. Most of us are strongly one kind of learned and then have a secondary preference.

This gives a distinctive edge to the visual arts as a learning experience, as they involve both visual and kinetic learning. Walk into a medieval church and experience the windows, the statues, the sculptures and you'll quickly have the idea. Video and film are new and wonderful teaching tools as they engage both visual and aural learners, just add keyboard or joystick participation for the hands on learners and everyone is involved.

Still, throughout history, visual representation has been our primary mode of disseminating information. Just imagine a statue or painting of a mother lovingly holding her baby. It's an image that belongs to a “language” that is universal, and understood by all people, whether literate or not. Musical lyrics, theater and the dialogue of a film, all require translation, dubbing or subtitles.

The ability to see is visual perception along with interpretauion of what is percieved. A baby may be able to see, but has to learn to understand what is percieved. Recent development in medical science include new proceedures that enable certain people who have been blind since birth or young childhood to see. After a successful operation, when the bandages are removed the family members are often dissapointed as the newly sighted patient struggles to see their faces and the world around. One has to learn to see as it includes being able to interpret and make sense of what is being perceived.

Great art challenges us to see the world in new ways. It reveals new ways of seeing. Art informs, inspires and challenges.

There is a saying that one picture is worth a thousand words. My pictures can be made up of a thousand or more words, with the Hebrew letters from Bible texts for all the strokes. These are binary letters, so my strokes reference iomportant concepts in many religions, such as good and bad, yin and yang, matter and spirit. It is not about the narrative depicted, a sunset, wildlife, a portrait, but rather how the work is created. The focus is always on its strokes.

July 25, 2006