Abstract Critique ⇒ Untitled Etching

[minniev]

Sometimes nature makes its own art- all opinions and suggestions welcome.

[LindaShorey]

Are they termite tunnels? It's a cool find, but I haven't worked out yet whether I like it. Something niggling my brain about the arrangement, sort of like a border around three sides of the frame, with not a huge payoff in the middle. At first I was thinking it's too ordered, but when I crop and flip, I like it Have no idea why, sorry.

I do know I'd be fascinated by the discovery (unless it means additional big $$ on the house restoration), and want to shoot it too! I'd love to know your thought processes for the particular compostion you shared, if you have time to discuss.

[Charles Haacker]

I like it. I do rather wonder what it is but I also think that's unimportant (it is an abstract after all). I also like what Linda did with it. I get a sense in your original presentation, Min, that the work is "running out the bottom." By flipping it Linda stops the "leakage." But since abstract art is, um, abstract I tend to think there are no rules, and anything and everything can be valid. It's up to the viewer to decide what the message is, or if there is a message, but conversely the artist may have a specific message to convey. Elsewhere we have been talking about bias in art and art appreciation. My particular bias with this particular work is that I like it better flipped and cropped. I find it more restful that way. The original presentation makes me uneasy with what I perceive as the work gliding out the bottom like blackstrap molasses. But I am not the active artist but the passive viewer. What reaction did Minnie intend? Did she want me to feel uneasy about where the piece was going, flowing thickly down an unseen wall past the bottom of the frame? If that was the intent then it was a success. I want restful, she wants unease. (Don't catch him this early with insufficient coffee; he gets this way.)

[minniev]

Are they termite tunnels? It's a cool find, but I haven't worked out yet whether I like it. Something niggling my brain about the arrangement, sort of like a border around three sides of the frame, with not a huge payoff in the middle. At first I was thinking it's too ordered, but when I crop and flip, I like it Have no idea why, sorry.

I do know I'd be fascinated by the discovery (unless it means additional big $$ on the house restoration), and want to shoot it too! I'd love to know your thought processes for the particular compostion you shared, if you have time to discuss.

Thanks for the demo and comments, Linda! The cool thing about an abstract is that it sometimes doesn't have a true top or bottom. It is a rotten tree that the bark has fallen off of, in the swamp. I don't really understand it myself but took its picture. I agree it benefits from a crop, but I like it upwards because of what I saw and now can't un-see - a monkey swinging on a vine like a trapeze, and a snake waiting to nip him in the butt on the backswing. They are what called the shots on the composition, rightly or wrongly.

[minniev]

I like it. I do rather wonder what it is but I also think that's unimportant (it is an abstract after all). I also like what Linda did with it. I get a sense in your original presentation, Min, that the work is "running out the bottom." By flipping it Linda stops the "leakage." But since abstract art is, um, abstract I tend to think there are no rules, and anything and everything can be valid. It's up to the viewer to decide what the message is, or if there is a message, but conversely the artist may have a specific message to convey. Elsewhere we have been talking about bias in art and art appreciation. My particular bias with this particular work is that I like it better flipped and cropped. I find it more restful that way. The original presentation makes me uneasy with what I perceive as the work gliding out the bottom like blackstrap molasses. But I am not the active artist but the passive viewer. What reaction did Minnie intend? Did she want me to feel uneasy about where the piece was going, flowing thickly down an unseen wall past the bottom of the frame? If that was the intent then it was a success. I want restful, she wants unease. (Don't catch him this early with insufficient coffee; he gets this way.)

Thanks Chuck. See my note to Linda which describes my own bizarre visual processing (and anthropomorphization issues) which caused me to orient it and frame it like this. I agree the crop improves it, but I'm still stuck with that damned monkey and the snake that's hot on his tail.

[Charles Haacker]

Dang. Now I can't un-see it either! (Well, there goes the ol' blackstrap...)

[LindaShorey]

A fantastic visual, Minnie. Definitely stick with your monkey and snake!

[St3v3M]

You have a wild sense of imagination and we're better for it! S-

[Matt Quinn]

Sometimes nature makes its own art- all opinions and suggestions welcome.

Two ballerinas dancing in campfire light. Matt

[minniev]

You have a wild sense of imagination and we're better for it! S-

I can't help myself