Letting Go of Expectations

How often have you visited museums and art galleries, alone or with someone?  I usually went to museums with a friend who was also interested in art, rarely having the quietude and intimacy of being solitary. We tended to move quickly, commenting to one another quietly, not approximating a conversation until we sat down…often to rest our feet. When I’d go to popular exhibit, there were usually too many people and limited opportunities to chat at all.

With Arting, I can wander wherever I want on the internet, choosing my own directions using key words of topics, artists and themes. This freedom reminds me of snooping in library stacks when I was playing with dissertation themes. In the woods as a child I’d have other adventures finding new plants, trees and flowers.

Similarly, the freedom in the conversations Shari and I have spoiled me because we wander wherever we wish and stop naturally after about an hour. Our openness and curiosity lead to new depths and surprises.  We serve as our own curators as we go “shopping on the internet” for art that intrigues and attracts.

Our three by three mashups, take us beyond focused expectations and neat categories. Essentially, we create our own exhibits, encountering new, unpredictable meanings from our choices, comparisons and contrasts in our juxtapositions and conversations.

Though art online cannot compare with the subtleties and dimensions of the real thing, arting gives me a heady sense of agency unavailable looking at what experts present. While their vision and interpretations have great value, some of it can be airless, even a soulless experience peering at someone else’s choices through a stranger’s eyes.

 I have also tended to find expert art history explanations somewhat jargon-ridden and overwrought with interpretation. One stellar exception is the education I get from Sebastian Smee’s explanations and analyses about art in the Washingon Post, usually on Sundays.

Shari and I say we are not artists, but I sense we, as well as you, are artfull (new word: full of art). So much so that our process has encouraged me to experiment with some mutually beneficial outcomes with an art therapist in training. Since”I can’t draw,” instead of creating my own images, I have stolen others’ images to create collages with playful, thought-provoking themes. They are often related to my work.

Again the process of juxtaposing, as in arting, inspired me. Below is my first collage, Belly Button Blues, created to discourage over thinking from focusing on one’s belly button where only fuzz may be found!

© 2023 Ruth Schimel. Belly Button Blues

I hope you will find the following interdisciplinary, enriching article opens additional doors, or at least windows: Wabi-Sabi For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers | Lion’s Roar (lionsroar.com) This article relates to all of us in our creative explorations and actions, however we define them.