There is no Destination

By: Alex Bennett
Text Type: Theory
Date: 04/26/2022

Pale and unwavering I scarcely catch my emotions long enough to make sense of them.
So when I find myself confronted with an art piece that encapsulates a feeling I try so hard to to avoid, I can’t help but drown in it.So much of my life I spend on an invisible edge.

  1. “Synthesize information”
  2. “Be understood”
  3. “Do not, no matter what, reveal too much”

All my research and findings are limited by my own rules. I create these rules to remain clear and direct in my conversations. Situations, my environment tempts and tests me, and I falter at every, single, obstacle. My feelings, I know, are not universal. I find comfort in this. I entered this class and these essays with one simple objective, to pass. Now I find myself writing my every thought in an attempt to “converse” with my audience.
Wheatfield with Crows, July 1980 - Vinvent Van Gogh’s Final Piece

The year is 1890 and the best painter to grace this repetitive and endless world has just died. Van Gogh was one of the most troubled minds amongst the greats, they say that art and pain go hand in hand. He took his own life, it is said that his last words were “The sadness will last forever”. Exploring art and mental health one can't help but recognize his contributions to this concept. “The arts.. Are fundamental to the healing process” Peter Senior claims in Art, Culture and Health. He goes on to acknowledge how art has the tendency to “assist recovery, encourage feelings of well-being and alleviate stress”. I find however, that while sublimation is a healthy coping mechanism for mental health, it can also facilitate rumination in whatever state the mind finds itself in. Senior however does explain how art can often be multifaceted, not just an extension of the mind but a means of influencing feeling. Van Gogh’s art did not serve as a pacifier but as an outlet. You feel his misery when you look at his art. The first time I ever came face to face with a Van Gogh piece I sobbed in the middle of the museum. I’m not one to care for attention, but there is something so genuine about the way he paints. His manipulation of color and form breaks me. I will not claim to understand him, nor do I wish to.

The more I think about myself and my emotional outlets I realize I absolutely need art to express myself. So much of my life has been spent consuming media that I do not know how to exist without it. For every thought there is a painting. For every feeling, a song. I consume and consume and I am left. Sculptures especially encapsulate how imposing it can feel to represent a feeling. Imagery envelops the parameters of our mind. Shapes fold and unfold beneath the hands of an artist. The manner in which we respond to art can often be confusing. Understanding artistic artifacts is a challenging, vague journey. There is value, however, in deciphering the message or lack thereof in an art piece. Often an artist's lack of transparency embeds emotion into their piece. Artist Kees Woestenenk reaches into this especially.
Reflection, 22x23x13cm, Marble, Kees Woestenenk
A figure sculpted with intention, this piece by Kees Woestenenk woefully sits to captivate all who pass it. His works with the human body are a testament to his life. There is an emphasis on each piece to draw out a sort of broken connection. As the audience we can never be the artist, and when it comes to Woestenenk the intention is to not connect as his pieces are often very telling to a narrative of which we are not a part of. Formless conventions take hold of the piece as attention is focused on recognizable parts. A scattered man laying on this slate, he holds himself up. The faded color and the hints of others are telling of the state of his being. Psychologist Johnathan Green touches on this idea of how strongly form can be reflective of the mental state. In his article “Form and mental state: An interpersonal approach to painting” He explains this term “gestalt”. “We may experience another’s feeling through empathic mirroring in ourselves; a more cognitive understanding” He goes on to explain. I find this explanation to be new to me but deeply intriguing. I find that through this I am able to interpret art as my own experience despite it being a shared thing.

Empathetic mirroring, I am myself so strongly that objectivity is impossible, to no end will I fully understand the artist. Do I find comfort in the fact that they too will never fully understand me?


Engaging with the physical space in which I observe and understand art I am drawn towards yet another deeply introspective artist. I was with a partner during my exploration. It was at The Carnegie Museum where I encountered this piece. It was a cold winter morning:
Exploring this museum is an act of entering a physical space. From the journey through campus to the team that accompanied me, I was able to understand a little bit more, and question a little harder. My questions ranging from mental health to public spaces, I desired understanding of the human condition. Ultimately I focused my experience into a question about how shared public spaces influence the way in which we elicit emotion. To do this I observed the art and people around me to better answer this question.investigated the way I behaved in this environment, my group ended up splitting into two for the purpose of this investigation. My partner and I used this opportunity to learn more about each other. I recall distinctly we bonded over the art piece “Untitled '' by Vincent Fecteau.
Untitled, Vincent Fecteau
This piece was very suggestive as Vincent stated that it was intentional in revealing human features that expressed a form of self. The curves and dips of this sculpture amplified the ideas of wholeness and my partner and I were about to communicate these ideas to each other. In addition both him and I were able to open up about aspects of our lives reflected in these pieces of art. This part of an exploration is always the most exciting. The newness that comes with understanding someone else. The artists I aimed to emulate even for a moment. This space in which hundreds of other people are connecting to these frames, these moments in time.

Author Howard Gardner explores the idea that it is not the creative process he contributes to artists and their mental health. Rather he presents his findings in “Art, mind, and brain: A cognitive approach to creativity” to be an account of the logical process of the mind. It is this idea of less creativity and more psychological synthesis. He states that there is little discussion about the “rational thought processes or conscious problem-solving”. He goes on to explain that “One must take seriously human mental processes or conscious problem-solving”

Then do I relate to artists not because of my own emotional depth and understanding, but because the thinking process is so similar to my own, is all thinking derived from the same place?

This idea that artists are more easily understood and their process far less “artistic” seems to take away from the real and intense emotional responses that often come from interacting with it. However I understand this to be true regardless. There are both very real aspects of “cognitive art” presented by Gardener and Green’s explanation of “gestalt” and our own emotional ties. I understand better how art can be something that is a logical process of the mind, while still attaching itself to the perspectives we all develop as individuals.

Part of my exploration into this topic prompted me to explore my own thought process. I began this essay with the intent of following my three rules, and to an extent I have. But my “quest” and my “discoveries” extend further than factual information that can be synthesized into vocabulary words. I discovered new ways of writing. I discovered that some of my partners are a lot older than me. I discovered that I shouldn’t try to run in the snow. I discovered that participating in class can bring about meaningful discussion. I discovered that finishing an essay 30 minutes before it is due can be a very tiresome process. I discovered that mental health is everywhere, that the mental state of humans is seeping out of us at all times. That art is more than what is seen on a canvas or what is tangible. Logical artistic thinking, or cognitive art, is a process that is constantly ongoing. Culture is intertwined with everything, everywhere, all the time. These sources and artworks explored are a reflection of the thought process of one individual. This essay serves as my attempt to internalize how vastly I am subjective to the art around me. Objectivity serves no purpose in discovering the mentality of others, to understand is to subject to the existence of others.

References:

Senior, Peter, and Patrice Marie. “Art, Culture and Health.” RSA Journal, vol. 146, no. 5486, 1998, pp. 98–103, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41380168. Accessed 27 Apr. 2022.
Green, J. (2009). Form and mental state: An interpersonal approach to painting. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 15(2), 137-145. doi:10.1192/apt.bp.108.005751
Gardner, Howard, and E. Gardner. Art, mind, and brain: A cognitive approach to creativity. Basic Books, 2008.
Bordin, Giorgio, and Laura Polo d'Ambrosio. Medicine in art. Getty Publications, 2010.
Conrad, Diane, and Anita Sinner, eds. Creating together: Participatory, community-based, and collaborative arts practices and scholarship across Canada. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 2015