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Spice of life: Quest to understand the art of expression
Art in any form talks a different language to every artist. Every stroke, every nuance, every colour choice, every note, every pitch has a different meaning. It’s how they perceive the world
Art in any form has always intrigued me. I feel drawn to it, particularly paintings and sculpture, but apart from gazing at it in wonder and awe, I don’t understand it. I embarked on a journey to comprehend what makes an artist different, and even more interesting the factors that make paintings worth a fortune sometimes. I would innocuously throw in queries to any person I met who was an artist or a collector.
One evening at a social gathering, I was introduced to a pulchritudinous lady as a collector of exquisite paintings. My senses tingled as I began exploring; after an hour of communication, passionate explanation from one person to a sponging of information at my end, I felt a chink open in the recesses of my mind. The appeal lies in the connection one feels, when the painting talks to you and you get totally consumed with it.
As Henry Thoreau, poet and philosopher, said: “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life,” painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso once said.
I’m a bibliophile and curiously my understanding of art and the artist and music and maestros are through reading. As I delve into biographies, I get totally engrossed in their lives. Their passions, their dreams, their obsessions, phobias, the extents of their insanity in pursuing their art, their inspirations, disillusions. “Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eyes, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colours flowers, so does art colour life,” said polymath John Lubbock.
My husband wrote a book on the world’s oldest festival of Indian classical music, which is held in Jalandhar every December. In the book, the history of the ragas and maestros is traced since its inception some 150 years ago. Married into a musical family, I’m embarrassed at my inability to understand music, I almost feel tone deaf. As he authored the book, I helped to edit it and it was like a bonanza from heaven, the task and journey teleported me to another dimension.
Reading about the artists and living their struggles, devotion, dedications and the hours and hours of ‘riyaz (training or practice)’ made me not only understand their art but also bow my head in veneration at the gift they gave to the world.
My journey about understanding art continues. I feel it can never have any end, the journey is teaching manifold, who wants to reach a destination? The quest requires me to meet and talk to people and that in itself is fascinating. I realise that art in any form talks a different language to every artist. Every stroke, every nuance, every colour choice, every note, every pitch has a different meaning for them. It’s how they perceive the world, their experiences, their trials and tribulations, the space they are in – all express. One artist I met uses acrylics and gold dust.
Art makes us richer, to see or possess. Beyond amazing!
promildada@yahoo.com
The writer is a Ludhiana-based freelance contributor
