Seeing....

Why can't I "see" in works of art what other artists see? (i.e. artists whom I respect very much) Other very skilled artists see so readily fantastic things ... in modern art? Yet, I can't "see" what they see. Why is that?

Often I am tempted to wonder ... whether this is truthfulness or a bias issue. Then I think .... no ... they must be "seeing" something that I am still not trained to see...I guess. Now I am no novice. I have been trying to "see" this in modern contemporary art for 30 years. Read books tell I'm cross-eyed and so bored I'm nearly brain dead. Goobbly-goop.

I just don't get the fascination with the 2 dimension surface...the canvas surface. Haven't we explored that enough? Where is the interest that grips the viewer in this abstract "power art" that is suppose to be "telling" some sort of "story" in a "powerful" way .

Do you have to have a PhD to understand it this stuff...is it snobbery or an invention of taste that blinds the eye?

Well some of this art is not saying anything to me ... but I defer to the experts. I guess I do not have the intelligence to be a "great" artist in their eyes.

But, why then is it that I can in fact "see" dynamism in J.M.W. Turner's landscapes/seascapes especially his later works? Powerful, big, dynamic paintings.

While one artist is berated for being "dull" with no variety of strokes, and labeled a method painter, unimaginative ... another painter is praised for being brilliant with BORING shapes ... yet I don't see a variety of strokes in their paintings either ... nor do I see anything so dynamic that my interest is held more than a few seconds?

Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggg

Maybe it is my monitor or a need for new glasses.

THIS is why I became a graphic artists in the 1967 and not a fine artist. I was NOT fascinated with abstract expressionism and it was do or die then.