In-Class Topic #1

Do artists create doors and windows into their artwork? Do observers? How so?

Doors and windows into reality are both perceptions of existence. No matter how powerful artwork is, it will still be unappreciated--and inexistent-- to a person who does not posses their complete sensory faculties: vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Additionally, even a person with normally functioning senses will appreciate artwork differently than another individual based on their own environmental, behavioral, and chemical palette that they carry with them through life to paint their surroundings. Some would call this palette personal 'aesthetics.' This variance in perception applies both to the artist and the observer. For example, the shifting use of colors from yellow to blue in Van Gogh's paintings has been attributed to the theory that he had depression or bi-polar disorder; however, who really knows what his eyes saw on his canvases and why? If one were to focus solely on a single psychiatric disorder, such as major depressive disorder (MDD), one would discover that 'perception' is not an objective term. In recent psychological studies, it has been demonstrated that depressed individuals have an impaired sense of smell and overcompensate with heavy use of perfume, they don't savor things that were once tasteful, and they even dream longer and more vividly than others. Due to the influences of our unique biochemistries and our resulting perceptual and emotional vantages, an artist may create metaphysical 'doors' and 'windows' for how their artwork is viewed or interpreted; yet, ultimately the keys and curtains are in the control of the observer.