You cannot imagine how much I hate that we’ve started treating not just art but everything around and inside us as content. Everything is worth only if it stops us from scrolling. If not, then we move on.
But even when we find an artist whose work moves us, we start expecting more of it, as if the work itself were not enough!!! We are confusing art for content, and the same things we want from the creators we love, we expect from the artists we love.
But a piece of art will never be a post. It is and will always be something that takes a person’s time, attention, doubt, and conviction to bring into this world. While content reveals itself in the feed without asking us for anything, art asks something back from us. It is only through curiosity and the willingness to stay with it that it can speak to us.
The beautiful thing is that when we give it that, it gives us something in return that nothing else can. It returns us to ourselves. It reminds us of things within our soul, ones that we might carry or have completely forgotten. This is the exchange that makes art valuable. But we can only have it if we are willing to do so.
And I am. As an artist myself, I love sitting down with art even more. And each week, I am sharing with you three pieces that gave me something in return as much as I gave to them.
infinite timelines spiraling below the green surface by alyssa stevens
In a way, I saw the work of Basquiat when I first encountered this piece, and, as his work always does, it sparked curiosity in me. I wanted to understand its layers, explore the connection between each element, and see what is really there.
But then, when I read the title the artist gave to the piece, I couldn’t stop asking myself:
What exists beneath the surface of oneself?
I looked at the green surface as being the self, which can be either the personal self or any other. And what’s beneath is the amalgam of emotions, feelings, and everything else that makes me define who I am.
The elements of this piece can each be looked at on their own, as a thing in themselves, yet when they come together, they become one. In this case, the one is the work of art. In my case, the one is myself. And I’d say that in your case, the one is you.
I was reminded today that I need to take more care of my soul and spirit and become even more aware than I am of the things that exist within me. I need to face them, to defeat them, and to replace them with better ones.
For a long time, I looked at chaos as something inherently bad, but I think it is actually one of the elements that leads to peace in life. There cannot be peace without chaos first.
Just look at the combination of colors, shades, forms, and textures that make this piece. At first, they seem like they don’t belong together, but they do. There’s so much harmony in their disconnection.
The more I gazed at it, the more I realized you also don’t need much to say something. This piece is made of just one thing: color. But its simplicity is framed in such a way that it becomes something entirely different for each one of us. It gives us something to sit with.
While this piece (experience it fully here) may in some ways represent the evolution of civilization, it made me think more about the evolution of oneself. I was born in 1999. I grew up playing with stones. At some point, many years into my journey here, I had a smartphone in my hand. I was also there when holograms started taking shape (think about VR; it’s not as popular as smartphones because the technology isn’t there yet, but it will be).
I reflected a lot on the continuity of life, on its stages, and on what I’ve learned in each era. And the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to see and understand if there is something that never changed, because I, and everything else around me, did.
I was led to God. In every stage of my journey, and in every stage of civilization, He’s been the only constant.🌹