This is one of those late Sunday night I’m-overtired-and-starting -to-get-a-wee-headache-but-this-is-such-a-great-confusing-idea-I-need-to -ask-my- friends-about-it blog.
In the future I am going to feature Anna Berezovksya and what she sees as bringing together techniques unique to realism, abstraction and surrealism. Her paintings are colorful, imaginative, and a delight to the sensibilities of us all. Here is one of her pictures:
Okay. If you can get past the initial shock of weirdness about it, it’s really finely done: the faces, the detail, the texture.
If you want to take a bit and “study” the picture, what is it saying? People following each other to the edge of the cliff (that’s my first thought). Okay. Different personalities are reacting differently. One has a movie camera, one is dangling their feet, one is a sailor, one is a king.
What does the seagull have to do with it? The fish skeleton? The apple? Why is the crescent moon hiding in those long braids? What is the book the king is holding? Why is the sailor wearing a hoop earring?
Okay Okay. Those questions are neither here nor there. We can interpret this painting however we wish. I’m sure Miss Berezovksya has her own explanation, too.
Here comes the spacey thoughts.
I am a writer. We are taught to be thorough (though not lengthy) in our explanations and descriptions. We have to create mood, atmosphere, and rhythm in our writings.
How would I explain this picture? Or the story of this picture?
This is in the same stratosphere as describing a Jackson Pollack or a Juan Gris painting.
I believe there is an explanation for everything. A reason for everything. From why cacti have needles for spines to why a spider has so many eyes. So there is an explanation for Abstract Art, Abstract Expressionism, Cubism, Conceptualism.
Some paintings are crystal clear. A portrait. A landscape. A Still Life. And many modern styles need no explanation — they are more of a tool to elicit response and emotion rather than make sense.
But I wonder if some are not meant to be understood.
Writing always has to make sense. Otherwise you will follow the rabbit down the rabbit hole never come out the same. You would be like “what did I just read??” Your brain would scramble to make sense of sentences and tenses and made up words.
So the question of the day is — how do you describe the indescribable? The nonsensical? The busy and the confusing?
As you can see, it’s way past my bedtime…..
Humoring the Goddess 
I don’t know about that. What I know is the sum of all my personal experiences.
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You are amazing, my friend. ❤️
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Oh yes, there is an explanation for everything, there is a reason for everything. Us humans think we can do as we please, we think we are going to do this and that and we will do it at a time we plan, but that is not going to happen as life always has a lot of surprises for us, pleasant ones and unpleasant ones, but life is never what we think it would be. When we are young we plan our life and we think everything will be as we think it will be and then WHAM….something life changing happens…as we both know, don’t we. Not even winning the lottery will bring the happiness you expect it to bring. When you are of a certain age you KNOW that, and that nothing is impossible. It is just reality. Even Doris Day knew that when she sang : what will be will be 😀
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You are so right. I have read many books where the descriptions are spot on, the words are magical. But those words were describing more familiar things like emotions and physical objects. A mixed media piece or a story told in squares and other shapes is meant to be more non-descript. Although I have seen artists who splash lines and jags on a canvas and say it is a mother walking her son to the park. It’s all in what you allow yourself to see, I guess.
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Every art has its limitations. They are inherent in the nature of the medium. In my opinion the excitement of creative practice lies in testing and challenging those limits. Think about this: If words could fully describe a painting, what would be the point of making a painting in the first place?
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So very true. But what if words are all you have? That’s all writers have.
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You make me feel like a million million dollars! That’s what the world of art is all about. Being fascinated, and bringing along others with us.
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Waaaaay past bedtime. But your question……….begs a longer answer than can be typed into a comment. Let’s start by acknowledging that words are pretty limited in their ability to communicate fully. So, describing the indescribable requires other forms of communication.
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You don’t explain it. Take it in and just feel it and let it speak its own language. Dissecting magic makes it evaporate. (How’s that?)
Happy New Year and thanks for the past year of great posts.
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