Ouch ouch ouch to write.

And then to go to the show and watch people move around the room, stopping in front of the statement card, reading it thoroughly; then glancing at the work and moving on.

Ouch ouch ouch to watch.

Why does this happen?

Partly, I think, it’s because as we go through school, most of us experience a word-oriented education. We learn that the pictures, however colorful and interesting, are there only to illustrate the words, the really important part of the book or article. Blog posts, magazines, newspapers — all are word-oriented with images as an accompaniment. The images are the bread on the dinner table, not the main course on your plate.

(You read the paragraph before you looked at the picture, didn’t you? :-) )

I don’t think we can change this behavior entirely without making radical changes to the way we think of education. I do think, though, that we can make changes to the way we present our art — changes that command the viewer to look first, then to read.

Follow me and I’ll explain.

This whole train of thought began when an artist wrote about a quilt she had made, a strong statement about a political event, about human rights and poverty. She appeared to be somewhat dissatisfied that, although the work had been exhibited in several large shows, it had received very little attention. The artist has not asked for a commentary or critique, so I will not identify her or the work.

I looked at pictures she had posted and I read the statement she had included in the exhibitions. It was immediately apparent to me why it had been overlooked: the statement, the words, were very strong about a poignant and heartbreaking series of events. The image itself was not. It was semi-representational, but other than part of a human figure, it was difficult to determine visually what was being depicted. As pure visual design, as color and pattern, it wasn’t interesting enough to stand on its own. The viewer had to read the words to understand what the image was supposed to be about.

Let me illustrate with some of my own works.

All That Jazz

Pure color, shape, movement. It doesn’t mean anything, really, except a visual representation of the feeling I have when listening to jazz music. It’s colorful, fun to look at, and doesn’t need explanation.

My artist’s statement about it would be essentially what I wrote above.

Hole in the Sky

Before I tell you about the symbology behind this piece, look at the image for a moment and think about what it might say to you. (I’d love it if you left a comment below and told me your thoughts, too.)

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History: The original title of the piece was “Codeine Dreams.” Several years ago I had a bout with pneumonia and during recovery was prescribed a cough syrup with a small amount of codeine, which produced extremely vivid dreams. One of the recurring themes was this hole in the broken sky with the ladder leading upwards.

Some time later I began to realize where the image had come from. In Pueblo mythology, the People are always moving upwards through the worlds, evolving from lower animals to human and onward to something more, something spiritual. Have you ever been to the southwest and visited a kiva? Kivas have a round hole in the roof reached by a ladder, the only means of ingress and egress to the sacred place. The ladder represents climbing out of the now, the imperfect present, into the upper world above.

In my dreams, the ladder was disconnected, requiring a leap of faith to move upward from rung to rung. The kiva, the present, was shattered, and the only way out was to go up.

I was excited about this, about realizing where the image had come from — until I started thinking about writing an artist’s statement for exhibition. Hm. Way too much explanation. Boring. Couldn’t stand on its own.

I put it away and never finished it.

Then, a few months ago, I showed it without comment to a friend, who saw an entirely different meaning, something equally weighty, without knowing what the image said to me or what its history had been.

I began to think that maybe the image was strong enough to stand on its own. What do you think?

Listening to the Hurricane Rain

Anyone who followed the news in that terrible summer of 2005 will probably recognize the story: New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina. Superdome. The roof tiles being torn away, torrential rains coming in. People trapped inside, terrified, not knowing whether they would live or die. No escape.

Even without the story, though, the image of loneliness, despair, and fear as the sky shatters and the walls break is strong enough to stand on its own. It could refer to any number of situations evoking those emotions and would speak to different viewers in terms of their own experiences.

My statement for this one would be short and simple, probably very similar to the first paragraph above.

So — does it need an artist’s statement?

My answer, one answer, is this: If the image is strong, it will catch the viewer’s attention first. They will respond to the image, they will spend time looking at it first, and only later will read the statement to find out what you thought it was about.

If you have to write what it’s about in order for the image to make sense, then perhaps the image isn’t strong enough. How can you make it better?

Your turn

Can you think of other examples? Does this ring true — strong images that don’t need words — about your work?

Leave me a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Image © Sky & Telescope - Click to enlarge

Tomorrow night, Thursday, August 12, will bring a spectacular show to the skies: A tight conjunction of four bright heavenly bodies (Venus, Saturn, Mars, and a crescent Moon) just after sunset, followed by the peak night of the annual Perseid meteor shower.

Look west after sunset for the planetary alignment — it should remain prominently visible until about 10 pm.

Around midnight, turn to the northeast and watch for the Perseid meteors. Because there will be no interference from the moon this year, the display should be especially dramatic.

Full story from NASA

Follow the jump for more good things.

8 Unconventional Ways to De-Stress

From ZenHabits

My favorites: #2 – finger paint (what’s not to like?) and #5 – Procrastinate. Make a list of things to do and then don’t do it.

Do you have an unconventional way to de-stress? Tell me in the comments!

The Known Universe

What would it look like to travel across the known universe? The American Museum of Natural History has produced a short movie starting in the Himalayan mountains and zooming out to the edge of forever. What a long, strange trip it is…

And in case you just need a happy lift today…

Use invisible thread, of course.

Fiber Art Happenings

1. Exhibition in Tulsa, Oklahoma, opening February 5, 2010: Modern Materials: The Art of the Quilt

An invitational art exhibition including 30 fiber art pieces by 24 artists, curated by Jill Rumoshosky Werner and featuring a special emphasis on 3-D works, opens February 5 at Living Arts,307 E. Brady, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Opening reception is February 5 from 5-9 pm; the show runs through February 25.

2. Gee’s Bend quilts in Flint, Michigan, opening January 23, 2010: “Mary Lee Bendolph: Gee’s Bend Quilts and Beyond.:

The exhibit, featuring the work of Mary Lee Bendolph and three of her relatives from Gee’s Bend, AL, was organized by Tinwood, an Atlanta, GA organization committed to “increasing public awareness and appreciation of the vernacular visual arts of the African American South.” In addition to the quilts are works by two contemporary Alabama-based artists, Thorton Dial and Lonnie Holley, who use found objects to create assemblage sculptures.

The show runs through April 18 at the Flint Institute of Arts, 1120 E. Kearsley St, Flint, Mi.

Other Cool Things

3. What would the earth look like if it had rings like Saturn? (YouTube video)

Wow. Talk about a different point of view! I’ve seen simulations that show the Earth with two moons or even two suns, but this is the first time I’ve ever thought of how the sky would look if it had rings. Now I almost wish it did.

I don’t normally like or recommend video, but this one is mind-stretching. Go take a look.

4. Shiba Inu puppycam returns!

Whoa. Two videos in one week!

Remember the Shiba Inu puppies from a couple of years ago? A couple in San Francisco set up a webcam through Ustream TV so they could monitor the progress of the puppies during the day. It wasn’t intended as a public performance, but the video link went viral because the little balls of fluff were just so adorable.

There’s a new litter of adorable fluffballs, and the video link is live again. If you go visit and the webcam is not currently on, there are several stored videos of the babies you can watch until they wake up.

All together now… awwwwwwwww.

5. Read ebooks from Amazon without a Kindle

There have been times I’ve been tempted by the idea of immediately downloading a book from Amazon, especially when it’s something I need right away and the price (usually $9.99) is considerably less than the cost of a paper book. Every time I’m tempted, though, I consider the $300 price tag for the Kindle and lose all enthusiasm.

But now Amazon has released a free Kindle app for the PC (Windows 7, Vista, XP — Mac version coming soon) that allows you to download and read books without owning a Kindle. Now you’re talkin’!

What else has come across your screen this week?

Yet because of his practiced eye and cultivated voice, he makes this experience completely come alive with gorgeous sentences: “A two-litre bottle of Fresca came by with a four-year-old girl attached.” Isn’t that so much more evocative than an ordinary description of a little girl drinking a big soda?

Read. Observe your surroundings today. Then plan how you can translate that experience into your art — in words or in images — and go make something beautiful from something utterly ordinary.

Click on the image to download a PDF version. Print it out and post it on your wall.

Then head into 2010 knowing that you are a month ahead of the rest of the world… and that you don’t have to be perfect!

Happy New Year!

This week:

- Visual Thesaurus
- Rice Freeman-Zachery on Getting Rid of Stuff — and why we are afraid to do it.
- Picassos With Pixels: 12 Groundbreaking Pieces of Digital Art
- Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2010
- Facebook Privacy Update: Don’t Use the Default Settings

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1. Visual Thesaurus: A completely brilliant boon to both writers and visual artists. You enter a word and instead of getting back a list of related words, you get a sort of tree with related words branching off from the one you entered. Click on one of the associated words and it moves to the center with new branches growing from it.

The service is free for a limited number of lookups. Unlimited usage is $2.95 a month or $19.95 a year.
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2. And Now Let’s Talk about Organizing Your Space, Part I: Getting Rid of Stuff

You know it’s true: you hang onto stuff you don’t want and don’t use and might not even like very much just in case that day comes when you need it and can’t afford to buy it and are so needy that you’ll be ever-so-grateful for having that Thing in the back of the closet. …You keep the extra set of dishes your ex-mother-in-law gave you, never mind that you hate them and that they remind you of the bastard who spent your joint 401K on some bimbo from Idaho—you keep those dishes so that, when you become homeless and unemployed and too sick to work, you’ll at least have something nice from which to eat your beans and Government Cheese.

There are times in my life when I’d love to be outrageous and flamboyant and not give a flying rat’s patootie what anybody thought of my clothes or my hair. I would love to have ATTITUDE, baby! Rice (rhymes with Lisa) Freeman-Zachery has it all the way from her tattooed ankles to her spiked orange hair, and she’s a terrific writer as well as a fiber artist.

I want to be Rice when I grow up. How can you not love someone who writes sentences that sizzle like this:

In short, what you’re doing by hanging onto all this crap is feeding your fear that someday your life will suck so badly that you’ll be happy to have that beige polyester leisure suit or that mustard-yellow wool jacket that’s too tight across the shoulders or that pilled-up pink blanket that makes you itch.

Or you fear the day you won’t be able to afford good acrylics, and so you have all these dried-out tubes of paint stored in drawers in your studio as a hedge against that day, because you figure you can cut open the tubes and mix the dried-up paint with water and at least have a little bit to paint with, living there in your cardboard box on the sidewalk, making your brushes out of your own hair tied to a twig with used dental floss you salvaged out of the dumpster.

Go. Read. Bookmark. Then start getting rid of fear.

And stuff.

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3. Picassos With Pixels: 12 Groundbreaking Pieces of Digital Art

Photographs from an exhibition of digital art at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, these images are static slices of art that moves — videos, interactive art that reacts when you move in front of it, a playful installation that allows the viewer to “blow” the fluff from a dandelion by pointing a “hairdryer” at the video screen.

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4. Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2010. I won’t tell you what it is, but the remarks on Twitter today have been scathing. My favorite? “Oh rly? Color of the year “inspired” by tacky tourist Southwest jewelry?”

It will be interesting to see how this color is used in design and fabric this coming year.

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5. Facebook Privacy Update: Don’t Use the Default Settings

[T]here’s an odd little twist to Facebook’s changes today that is almost, but not quite, in your best interests. The default settings that Facebook recommends goes something like: “transmit all your status updates and uploads to everyone on the Net, not just your friends.” Since Facebook estimates that only 15% to 20% of users take the time to adjust the privacy settings to suit their needs, this is most definitely going to lead to people sharing too much information, or accidentally leaking out stuff they thought was semi-private (which is great for reporters, but maybe not so good for everyone else). Given that “inappropriate” content your Facebook profile can get you fired by an overly-prudish boss nowadays, this is bound to cause an uproar.

I swear I’m going to delete my account altogether.

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And a bonus: 20 Ways to Tell If You Use Social Media Too Much

(Hm… how many of these apply to you? I’m not telling…)

1. You are going to spend the Christmas holiday with @grandma and @grandpa.
2. You log in to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (or another form of social media) before you eat breakfast or get dressed each morning.
3. When a friend says something clever, you respond by saying “I’ll retweet that.”

Happy weekend!

So how to start Month Zero?

Well, first of all… do you have goals set for next year? They don’t have to be big goals like “restore world peace” or “stamp out hunger.” They do need to be measurable, though. You can’t say something vague like “I’ll make more quilts next year.”

Nope. Make it concrete. “I made XX quilts this year. Next year I will make YY.”

Or “I will enter one exhibition/quilt show this year.”

Or “I will take a class from (teacher I’ve always secretly admired).”

That’s the first step. Write down those specific goals — one, or several, or a whole bunch. If there are a whole bunch, try to prioritize them. “I really want to do this thing, but I am absolutely going to do that one if I have to hijack a Wells Fargo truck to pay for it.”

(Just kidding about the Wells Fargo truck. Law enforcement officials would frown upon it and they wouldn’t allow needles or other sharp objects in your cell. Difficult to make quilts that way.)

(Besides, I think Wells Fargo changed its name last year. It would have to be a Loomis truck.)

Write your goals. Make them measurable. Share them here if you like, and we’ll form a Monday Morning Kick in the Pants Society to help keep each other on track with the goals. Or pin them up on your wall and keep track of them yourself. But I promise you, having a group to gently and lovingly kick you in the pants — and cheer like crazy when you reach a goal — is a Good Thing in terms of getting things done.

It’s just like Weight Watchers, only without the weigh-in. Or you know, that whole keeping-track-of-food thing.

Next time: You’ve got your goals, but how do you get there from here?