The Art of the Mystery
How do you define creativity? Is it simply new techniques or ways of presenting a vision? Most art contains some level of that stuff but not all invention is art, and not all art carries you up to another intellectual plateau. It’s not just technique or skill: there has to be an extension—a conscious push for the “different.” There must be a willingness to dive into the unexplained—even within the confines of what we call convention. You can think of it as the art of the mystery.
Suzanne Vigil’s mastery of drawing and color is by itself enough to pull you into her vortex with all its sly suggestions…but the endless possibilities of meaning will keep you there, even after you turn away. She traps you in a very curious universe.
In “Pandora’s Catastrophe,” it’s easy to become so dazzled with the visual magic: fabrics, jewelry, color harmonies and transparent effects. You can miss the subtle messages—the secret stories within the famous myth. Resist its enchantment or you’ll be its prisoner, interwoven in a mystery of implications.
Ben Tolman uses the tangible traditions of drawing and design to explore the intangible realm of ideas. It’s his search for surprises.
He sits for hours at a stretch immersed in his own mind. It’s a silent conversation with the inhabitants and convolutions of the drawing paper in front of him. He sets them free—to talk back—to challenge—to be equal partners in the conversation.
In “Occupied,” you know they’re in there. But who or what are they?
Six descriptions of the “The Virgin,” by Gustav Klimt, might give you six different explanations. But does every mystery need to be solved? Klimt’s meanings can churn and roil deeper than appearances, but visual images can be beautiful in themselves. They are, in the end, your visions. You can conjure up your own mysteries.
PTSD also goes deeper than appearances. It can churn and roil beneath a calm exterior and be mysterious even to those who know us. So we need a conscious push from within—an extension to another plateau—but beyond the intellectual to the spiritual. It can be a dive into the unknown where we can find a tranquility that brings a higher level of understanding of the pressures and turbulence around us.
I read the article again
It is very stimulating
Noreen