Art Is Story

Creative Arts Center Lecture

By Dr. Marilyn Todd-Daniels

February 3, 2007

      All art is story, told from the perspective of the one who holds pencil or brush. Everyone in this room has a story unique to them, full of ups and downs, joys and sorrows, loves lost and found and sometimes lost again. Some of you may have written down your story for your kids, and I applaud your effort. No one else can tell your story the way you can. Karin asked me to do an art history lecture for you today. Since I have taught both art history and art appreciation, I can tell you there is no way to do that in an hour.

     However, I can speak to you from the perspective of a person who has taught, performed and written about art for half a century. It is my hope that you will then be a more informed viewer of visual art. I also hope you will join that growing number of people who collect original art. The Creative Arts Center has many lovely originals that are affordable.

     Art critics would like to make the understanding of art into a selective, insider kind of thing, full of complexities and secret codes only deciphered by the learned. To some extent, they are justified. Human beings are complex and secretive creatures, shape shifters and full of illusions. That is what makes us interesting.

     That said, I am going to lend you a key which will unlock many doors of understanding. That is my job as a master teacher. Here it is.  In every work of art, there are actually four stories being told at the same time, beginning with the first glimpse of an idea. There is that of the artist, the medium, the object, and creation itself.

     Obviously, the artist's story, his or her state of mind, skill level, and life experience at the time of the telling will be the most important, at least in the beginning. Sometimes even the artist can't tell you until he or she is finished what they really had in mind. They only know this story will not let them alone until it is told. Art historians are always trying to tell us what was on the artist's mind but these are only educated guesses.

     Then, there is the story told by the medium itself, whether watercolor ... or oil ...or conte crayon ... or clay ... or collage and found objects. As Marshall McLuhan once stated, "The medium is the message." A watercolor will tell a different tale from an oil, a pastel will differ from a pencil drawing. The artist uses the properties of the medium to augment the story.

     Elements like color and value (shades of black and white) also play a role, as do such principles as balance, rhythm and unity. Many times I started in one direction, only to change a composition because it didn't work with the medium. Colors seem to talk back and insist on being modified in some way.

     Even time comes into the picture as a variable. A fifteen minute sound byte on TV cannot convey the richness of Tolstoy's prose in his great novel, War and Peace, which takes hours (if not weeks) to digest. The artist must therefore choose his or her medium carefully to more effectively tell the story to a chosen audience.

     The third story is more often overlooked now than in earlier historical periods. This is the subject itself. The need for food marked the cave paintings, worship needs created ikons and religious subjects. Kings and important men and women wanted portraiture for remembrance (if not immortality) and conquerors commemorated important battles by chiseling sculptured steles or triumphal columns.

     In these days, however, with the camera taking over these roles, we artists can enjoy less grandiose enterprises. The demise of the aristocracy has robbed us of our patrons but now we have new ones, people who want to share the creative experience with us. We can choose a subject whose voice echoes his perspective or which as similar emotional qualities. For instance, I hate straight lines, and simply refuse to paint old barns, even though I appreciate their weather-beaten textures and the allusion to the less stressful past associated with farming. Therefore, I enjoy figurative or landscape painting which is mostly curves.

     Food is always a great choice for a subject. A simple still life of apples and oranges always conveys a message of delight through individual shapes and colors.

     The fourth story is what I call God's story, or the creation story. There will always be the unknown, the minute one picks up a pencil for the initial blockin. In this case, the whole is greater than its parts. Something miraculous happens between the artist, the medium and the subject, something seemingly outside the control of any one of them. This we call "the art process" One of my favorite maxims in art is "trust the process."

     This happens throughout any work -- you find yourself changing your mind, moving things around, tweaking. It is the rare piece that turns out exactly as envisioned. The secular artist might claim this extraordinary process for his muses, but I prefer to think it is God with us, playing a melody that only He can hear. As creative beings we are allowed, now invited into, greater realms of glory.

     As for what you will see today, try to look at each one in terms of its story. Is it more about the artist? Then style will be evident. More about the medium? Look to the skill in handling. The subject? What information does it convey to you? The piece that speaks to you deeply will be the one in which all the stories jell into a unit for you as an individual.

     If you can afford it, and if it matches your couch or bedspread, take it home. If it haunts you, come back and put it on layaway. Thank you for listening. I hope this helps you to be less confused about looking at art.