Does the Artist have the Final Say?
By Laura Mocnik
As artists, we try to bring something new into existence…the way we think, the way we feel, what inspires us. We do this in many different ways, sometimes through medium, sometimes through color, sometimes through subject, whichever way we wish to tell the story. For me, I love to draw, especially with pastels. What inspires me are people and drawing portraits. I use a limited color palette and usually line to express myself, focusing on emotional connections and daily life to convey a story. But does the story end with me when I have said what I wanted to say? Four or five years ago, I posted a quote on my Facebook page from an Art Professor in a novel I read, Gift of the Loon by Gillian Andrews, given to me by a dear friend. In this novel, I loved how the Professor proceeded to answer this question for his students: Does the artist have the final say?
Professor M. Berger says: “But even as he finishes, the story does not end. Because then the viewer takes the piece into their head, yes? And they interpret the piece in a different way. Perhaps you think this is incorrect. You think the artist must have the final say. But I tell you now, you are wrong. Each person who sees the art sees it through the window of their life, the window of their memories, their understanding. So there will be an exchange between the viewer and the artist, yes? The mind combines with the art. It creates an interpretation! In this way everyone experiences something new… It is the way of magic. Your art will become something new in the mind of another. Is that not amazing? Nothing of your time is wasted. It is transformed again and again in the eye of each viewer.”
When I read that, I said to myself WOW! Yes! The artist HAS created magic! In this pastel “Refreshing”, I was trying to create a mood, a feeling, and the need for this man, my husband, to cool off with the water from the creek that runs through our property. That was my story. But after I posted my finished pastel on social media, many people saw different things that stirred their emotions. In particular, one person saw a baby in the water at the bottom of my pastel as my husband was bringing water to his face. Maybe this person was interpreting it as a baptism? I was just trying to get the feeling of splashing water and I do not know how that image came about. But once seen, I could not unsee it. There, you see the magic that was created in the eyes of another viewer.
In the novel, Professor M. Berger concludes by telling his students, “Does it not add a new dimension to the image? The next time you go to the gallery or view another’s work, instead of asking yourself, ‘What is the artist trying to say?’ ask ‘What does this piece say to me?’ Who agrees? That is all. You may go now.”
Yes. I agree! There are many people viewing art and even art historians that are always trying to figure out the meaning behind the work of any particular artist. Why did the artist do it this way or that way? What is the artist trying to convey? What was the artist thinking? It is all well and good but I agree with Professor M. Berger that the artist does not have the final say.