John Cage in one of his interviews stated: “if you look at anything long enough, you would start to develop some sort of a connection with it. If you don’t within five minutes, try 10. And if you failed at 20, try 30 etc…” Jeanette Winterson shares the same ideals, but only with Art. Her love and devotion for Art comes through in her writing. In the beginning she didn’t care too much for paintings, but as she exposed her self to only more paintings she fell in love. However Art takes time as she said, until you find something, anything that keeps you coming back for more. Winterson then explains the pain that comes with experiencing a painting for an hour. The first form is increasing discomfort, looking at anything for such long time generates some sort of discomfort. One of the very first things you will notice about your self doing is, you aren’t very good at the act of looking. Increasing distraction, where your mind wanders. Increasing invention, where you make up things that aren’t even related to the painting. Increasing irritation, one of the symptoms I experienced the most when I decided to take the challenge. I found myself asking a lot of questions of the painting. I started to say the painting is boring and it needs to do something to appeal more interesting. In her second article Winterson poses the question, what is art for? If you want to enjoy art, she suggests that you withdraw your self from the world. In other words eliminate all the distractions around you. The outcome she says: “the artwork begins to reach you with energies of its own – very different energies to the getting and spending going on all around.” A very interesting point that came across, art can’t change your life. You can’t expect art to do so between a night and day. But it cant inspire you to become a better person. No quick fixes, it takes time and devotion. Art sometimes is confrontational, difficult; it asks too many questions of us. It brings hidden issues to the surface, issues we’d rather not talk about, or discuss in public. That’s why in my opinion art will never die. Because there will also be a reason for us to make art, always something talk about through art. which is why Art matters.
Journal # 2
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