In the field of art, communication is a bit different then one might expect. This is mainly attributed to the fact that communication art wise is strictly visual driven. To gain some insight into this field and figure out exactly how artists communicate I interviewed a local artist named Tyler Tolle. He is heavily involved in the art program at Northwest and has a vast knowledge of the subject.
Tyler says that as far as communication goes between artists, it is somewhat limited. Typically the only oral communication involved in the field of art is done through critiques. A critique is someone viewing your work and telling you what works and what could be worked on. While the average person may look at a piece and say “I like the colors and how that part sticks out more than that part.” Where as an experience artist in the field looks at two different categories of the piece: elements and emphasis. Elements of a piece consist of shape, texture, form, value, contrast, space, and line. Emphasis is more how the piece is organized and where it takes you. You can explain a piece of art, but what I could tell you about the piece might not be what you see in the piece.
To test this I sat down with two of my fraternity brothers, one which was an art major and the other just a regular Joe. I first asked the non-artist to describe a movie poster to me. He replied simply that certain things stick out more than others; he looked upon the painting in a very elementary type of way. I then asked the artist as to what he thought. He began to throw out words I had never heard. He talked about the layers of the poster, the values and the hues. He talked about the placement, the shapes and the lines. I was starting to get lost amongst the art mumble jumble.
The biggest communication that happens in the field however is silent. Visually artists communicate their thoughts through their works. Artists express their thoughts and emotions through their work. One thing that Tyler really wanted to make clear to me is that there is no set meaning for a piece. Art isn’t biased because each person has his or her own thoughts and ideas about a piece. He says good art has no direct message; it has several interpretations and meanings. In this field you communicate through writing, but very rarely. Sense there is no set interpretation to his art, he allows the other artists to view his piece, as they want to view it. Words on a piece of paper don’t allow that natural feeling. You create the piece, but the viewer completes it.
Tyler speaks of the biggest person he communicates with and it may surprise you. The biggest person he communicates with is himself. He speaks with peers about their interpretation of their piece. He speaks with other artist and even artists that have passed that he doesn’t even know. He communicates through art, and others communicate to him through their art. Silent communication is key to the field. In order to better understand whom he communicates to and who communicates to him he looks at art to model after.
A lot of the time people think art is so simple. It isn’t just throwing something down with any emotion behind it. There is an assumption that art is very elementary and that its just filling space. There is much more thought to a piece Tyler says, you are constantly changing your ideas, sketching, then re –sketching, then sketching again. People don’t realize that masterpieces in museums weren’t just conceived as they are. A piece that sits in a museum has changed multiple times. It could have started as a sketch, then a painting, then completely repainted, then sketched again, then disregarded only to be re done. Someone may create a background for a piece just to let it sit for months or years then return to it later. There is no set process. No one knows the thought or the thinking done behind a piece other than the artist.
I am somewhat artistically minded and have previous education on the field, so I had few assumptions about the field. One thing I never really took the time to think about was the amount of thinking that goes into a piece. Not necessarily the simple pieces that we see day to day but the huge pieces we see in the places like the Louvre in France. I can’t comprehend how much work that is put into it. I wonder how many sketches and failed attempts it took before they arrived at the final one. My biggest question is; if they are constantly changing their piece, how do they decide that the piece is complete?
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