Choosing by heart
Years ago on an art gallery fair in Copenhagen (actually the first time my art was officially featured through a gallery) a couple came over to me.
I stood excited and happy next to my very first 3 big paintings, and as they came over, they entered the conversation by saying: ”We don’t know much about art, but we just really like that painting you have there!” I replied, I didn’t know much about art either, but I just really liked to create it ;)
It’s funny how different fields create different myths around them. We don’t need to know about house building or the history of house building traditions to know what house we just love and wanna live in, when we see it. The same goes for clothes, shoes, food, cars - and so many other things.
For some reason it has become a belief within us that when entering the world of art, we have to be an art history expert or an art investor in order to be able to choose, what we like.
And admitted, if you’re wearing the big spender pants - and are really in for an investment of a lifetime, you might wanna study a bit more in detail and perhaps get an expert’s point of view before putting your life savings into the buy.
But in all the rest of the cases, you can choose to simply look at it like this: You can have so many people telling you what is ”good” or ”bad” art, but at the end of the day it’s you, who’s going to look at it every day, and then all the glow of trends, name dropping and so forth quickly fades, whereas the energy you feel with your own heart, gut feeling, intuition - call it what you want - never fades.
When you choose by heart, you by nature, biochemistry and energy are attracted to the art that speaks to you. It has a story, feeling and vision to tell exactly you - it becomes a visual reminder of your own story. A choice from your heart gives a long lasting experience and hopefully the art will make a positive impact in your everyday life for exactly this reason. So I vote for "power to the heart"!
Oh, and by the way, the lovely couple from the art gallery fair ended up buying the painting ”because they just really liked it” and to me this is the best way ever to choose art as well as everything else.
How about you? Do you know the feeling of letting your mind or beliefs override the knowledge of your heart?
I'd love to hear about it, feel free to share your story below <3
Kristina
Kristina
I completely agree with your sentiment here Kristina. I think that art critics, historians, curators, museums, art schools, dealers as well as certain artists have really contributed to this kind of mythology around art that you don’t find around music, literature or many other art forms. Consequently, the general public is always self-conscious when they’re looking at art and afraid to voice what their heart and gut is telling them.
I’m with you though. I always honour my own responses art as I do in life. And as in life I’ve noticed that over the years those responses have changes as I’ve changed.
Great article and LOVELY site. {{{Hugs}}}
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