I've often wondered about that old saw about 'seeing the world through the eyes of an artist'.
Over the years, I've heard many variations on that particular theme in popular culture:
- Life through the eyes of a child.
- Approaching life with the 'engineering mindset'.
- A writer's take on the world.
- A mother's viewpoint...
And so on... Which leads me to wonder, how much do our experiences really shape our world view?
I have a fleeting image of individuals who change hats to change their viewpoint... IE: I'm looking at this as techie or now I'll check it out as a mother!
How many times does that average person change their hat in the course of a day? It would certainly be challenging to quantify. And your control group would have to be very perceptive and honest in order to make the study relevent. If it could even be done...
Coming back to the artist, how does that artist express/communicate his vision of the world in his work if he also has many other 'personas' or worldviews? Could be an interesting direction to pursue if you had a sense of humour I would think...
I have a writer friend who is fascinated with personal expression and how the artist can speak for their generation on some level. There's been a lot of debate on the artists role in society and their voice in a culture. She even postulates that it is the artists responsibility to publish their views in order to express that 'piece of our culture'.
I don't know about that, but I'm a firm believer in variations in order to create a broader, more balanced view of things.
Maybe our own hat changing trick is designed to do just that, balance us out so that we don't stagnate or go crazy!
With that in mind, I'm going to go change hats and take a look around...
Images by Teresa Young:
1. The Fungus - August 2001, 2. Urgency - June 2007, 3. Currents Musings June 2009, 4. Closeup of Veil of Tears - March 2010.
