The reason – The intent

There’s always a lot of discussion about making art and what the artist’s intention is, how important the intention is, why they make what they make. For me, I’m of mixed feelings about how much the viewer needs to know the artist’s intention.

I want the viewer to look at my work and have a reaction of their own, or none, without my intervention. When people come to me and ask questions, I’m often guilty of asking them questions back, until they reveal what they think about the piece. Then I might agree, or be intrigued by something new they found all on their own, sometimes I’m surprised by their take on it. That’s good! I might also share some of my own thoughts about it, either about the making of it and how it started or what I thought after it was all done.

I will say that sometimes that discussion with the viewer is fun and enlightening on both sides. You’ve read here that I’m not a big fan of artist statements and lately have written haikus, again to make the viewer do some thinking about something without giving away the store (or the story). I don’t write “As an artist, my work revolves around identifying my contrapuntal relationship with nature and the forces that bear down on our lives and I do this by exploring the application of paint and stuff to my material referencing ancient women’s role in society.” In fact if I ever typed something like that in relation to a quilt you’d find me dead of self-inflicted butter knife stabbing alongside the computer!

I do know though that having some knowledge about the artist – their life and how they worked often enriches my experience as a viewer. That’s me loving biography. I get a sense of where the work comes from or how they came to make it. I don’t ask for a blow by blow of why they made this particular piece.

Having said all that, one of the new pieces in the Metropolitan Museum’s Connections series is about Intention, and it does look at the whys behind a piece and how that impacts the viewer and asks the question: does the artist’s intention impact how good or valuable the work is.