Everyone likes to get favorable comments on their artwork and I’m no exception. When someone takes a moment to tell me that they like my art, I am most appreciative. It certainly is gratifying and validating. But most artists treasure the experience of having their work viewed in depth. When this happens, the comment can become an enlightening experience. I think this is what the Comment Revolution is all about. [link]

I and many other artists and photographers create intuitively. What we respond to is often deep below the surface of our consciousness. It can take days, weeks, sometimes years before we fully comprehend our images at the conscious level. When we do, there is an experience of illumination, a flash of sudden insight. Where Intuition had stood bravely alone it is now merged and fortified with the Clarity of Understanding.

Alejandra’s (aka colddarksilent) comment on a recent deviation “Petrified Wood Abstraction #1” is the kind of response that artists crave. She has overlain a vital psychological and philosophical portrait on a black and white abstraction of dead wood. This image, much like a Rorschach blot, encourages viewers to make up their own story. And the story that is written always tells more about the viewer than the picture.

Minor White coined the expression “Things for what else they are”. He emphasized through many of his abstract images [link] and much of his teaching that what a photographer captures is not only what appears on the surface but also, and perhaps more important, a mirror of his psyche. He extended this approach to image making to what he called “Creative Response” – the thoughts and feelings experienced and shared by the viewer of the image. In his workshops, he and his students would often dance to what they saw in photographs!

Alejandra’s comment is truly a “Creative Response”. Her lucid interpretation reveals a remarkable depth of understanding of images and life - even more remarkable from such a young person. (Or maybe young adults were just shallower when I was twenty). She takes the specific graphic features of “Cave Dwelling” and points them to universal truths. She then philosophizes about the nature of the permanent and impermanent. As she stated: “To some people life can be meaningless”. Artists often ask themselves about their art: “What’s the point”? The Creative Process IS the point and Alejandra has extended the process with her “Creative Response”. What more could an artist ask?

JT