I often find it difficult to come up with the right words in a statement about my work that really gets to the sensibility of the visual image. As John Tallman said in his July 10th post on Color Chunks, musicians are not asked to paint a picture to go along with the musical composition...nor writers, or poets. But for visual artists today, it seems essential, required.
Below is Kyoko Ibe whose exhibition, The World of Yugen: Japanese Paper Artworks, is on display at Krannert Art Museum located at University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign through Jan. 4, 2009. "The Japanese concept 'yugen' is used to describe the profound, the remote, and the mysterious. Yugen is that which cannot be easily grasped or expressed in words, but rather revealed through spiritual strength and grace." Click on the title of the exhibition above to read more.
This concept speaks to me. Without Words!
But at Color Chunks, John Tallman offers artists an opportunity or perhaps a challenge, to write about a word not your art.
He says: "Below you’ll see a list of words in no particular order. Read over the list. If a word jumps out at you, if you feel there is a word that might relate somehow with the art you do, please write a few sentences on it(maybe a paragraph or two—more?), send it to me with a jpg of your work and I’ll post it on “Color Chunks.” (July 10th post)
As I see it, this offer is to relate a word to some part of your creative process, not use it to explain your painting. I see this as a creative opportunity to be playful with words, to make a creative "word document" that perhaps parallels your working process in some way.
I'm thinking about taking up the challenge. Artist Pam Farrell is one artist who has taken this challenge. And Joanne Mattera. Check out these and more at Color Chunks.