Last weekend, two of my grandchildren came to visit, as they do quite often. My oldest granddaughter, who is 15 years old, decided she wanted to watch the old family videos, which start when she was a baby. So we did that.

I watched these beautiful young faces. I saw in their eyes, their smiles, their faces, looks of pure joy. I heard their laughter, saw their pure unadulterated happiness.

What I saw in those faces was the belief that all is right with the world, that life is wonderful, perfect. That made me sad, because I know that life is anything but perfect. Life is full of difficulties, challenges, failures, disappointments, broken dreams. I felt like they had no idea what was ahead of them. The thought that these beautiful young children had pain ahead of them in their life, that%92s what made me sad.

Life is what is it; it%92s not easy, and it%92s not fair. Why that should make me sad, I%92m not sure. What doesn%92t kill us, makes us strong, right?

What is life all about? Is it about being happy and avoiding pain, or is it about what we can achieve in spite of the difficulties? Is it about the journey, how we cope, how we live, rather than the absence of pain? And perhaps joy and happiness cannot be felt as deeply without having also felt loss and pain.

Please share your views by clicking on %92Comments%92 below.

Suzette

"A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances." (James Allen)

In my last blog entry, I mentioned %92Artspeak%92 and today I%92d like to talk about that.

What is %92Artspeak%92?

When you read about art or about an artist, and the words and sentences used are so convoluted or obscure that they become meaningless, that%92s artspeak. You read it, on the surface it sounds like intelligent language, but in fact you can%92t understand what they%92re saying.

Here%92s an example:

"My motif is the deconstruction of mutant rulers from the fragmented hierarchy within the unsafe vision of postmodern classicism." This is an artist%92s statement that accompanied a loose painting of a drooling dog-like figure exhibited in an art school faculty show. (excerpt from a newsletter by Robert Genn, at painterskeys.com)

For more on this topic, read %92Robert Genn%92s newsletter%92.

The use of language often determines our status in society. The well-educated and the wealthy%92s use of the language is generally more sophisticated than that of the lower classes. Most of us make an instant judgment about people based on their speech.

I feel that this use of artspeak is the same thing. It is an attempt to elevate oneself, or one%92s art, to a level higher than the viewer, to give meaning where there is none, or where none is obviously apparent.

Personally, I find such statements annoying and irritating, not to mention snobbish, elitist and meaningless. It is this kind of thing which gives the art world a bad rap and which alienates viewers and makes them afraid to buy art because they feel they don%92t know or understand it.

So bye for now. I am now going to elevate my physical essence to my art production facility wherein I will proceed to laminate ground-covering products in myriad hues, tones and shades, to a surface which has been prepared with an assortment of gelatinous substances used to create an underlying asperous expanse in anticipation of the further application of chromatic pigments. (I%92m going to paint now).

Please share your thoughts on the subject.

Suzette

I like visiting galleries and artist studios. Of course, what I%92m most interested in are paintings; other exhibits are interesting too, but in a different way. When I look at paintings, I look, feel, analyze, interpret, examine techniques, colours, textures, and relate what I see to my own work. It%92s so much more relevant for me. I seem to be affected more by paintings than by anything else.

Every once in a while, I come across something other than a painting that just bowls me over, like Rodin%92s sculpture %92The Kiss%92. It is so beautiful, you just want to run your hand over it, and feel the smooth cool marble, feel the wonderful shapes and curves. But generally, paintings are my main interest.

I recently visited a nice little gallery that I hadn%92t seen before. The exhibit was not made up of paintings, and it was strictly conceptual. Remember my discussion recently on %92What Makes it Art?%92 where I ask the question %92is the art in the concept or the execution?%92 Well, this exhibit had 2 or 3 concepts kind of mixed up together and I didn%92t feel they went together. Some of the pieces were thoughtful and thought provoking. Some were just confusing or even irrelevant. All were competently executed but not masterfully so. Where was the art? I did not find it artful. It was a statement (albeit a confusing one), but I did not feel it was art. Even after speaking with the artist in person and having a chance to hear her explain several pieces, I still felt this way.

Of course, remember that my comments on this exhibit are those of an ignorant observer. This was not my medium and so I am ignorant of the technical aspects, etc. etc. But I am able to judge many elements which are common to painting, such as composition, balance, movement, focal point (or lack thereof), and most significant, a sense of excitement about the piece, an ability to touch you, to make you catch your breath. I saw or felt no excitement about these pieces. It was strictly about the concept(s) and these were not cohesive or well represented (in my opinion anyway).

The artist statement that came with the exhibit was one of those typical statements: %92artspeak%92 is what some call it. (Artspeak is another one of those subjects I feel strongly about; watch for it to be the topic of a blog soon!) What do I mean by artspeak? A lot of fancy words that really don%92t say very much. Frankly, I felt there was more %92art%92 in this artist statement, than in the exhibit itself.

I guess %92what is art%92 is a personal and subjective question, and the answer is different for everybody.

"There are people out there who think that heavyweight words are most in need for lightweight work."   (Robert Genn on %92artspeak%92)

Suzette