About two decades ago I was exhibiting my abstractions at an arts festival in South Africa and in the caravan park where we stayed, the artists, vendors and musicians would sit around the tents at night and share their experiences and advice. One man turned to me one evening and told me politely that the public would have a problem with my art works, because according to him, I was painting "jazz" and most people shy away from it. Jazz, as we all know is a musical genre that is known for its improvisations and freedom.
Well, not all people seem to shy away from jazz. Let me tell you something that happened yesterday (24 hours ago). A friend of mine who lives on the Isle of Man told me that he does not "understand" abstract art, because it appears to him as if even he can do it, "it did not require any skill" according to him. (I am not starting a debate here about the merits or demerits of abstraction, I just want to illustrate something.) When I told him that he should think of it as being something like jazz music. He responded positively and told me immediately, "Well, in that case I understand abstract art, because I like jazz".
I completely understand, whatever your stance on the matter is, that we as people could feel lost visually if we do not understand or interpret what we see, and it is fine. As an artist (and I speaking for myself) patterns, whether abstract or realistic repeats, bring an assurance, even to me. I can take a "mistake" and turn it into a pattern, and then it becomes more than acceptable, it becomes beautiful. I will include an experiment I made of a Kalahari landscape which was not that much to my liking, but once it was repeated as a pattern, I looked at it with more affinity. May we find ways to turn our "misfortunes" into "fortunes". Happy "patterning"!
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