The Meaning Of An Image

digital art, collage, print, meaning in art

Voluntary Servitude, RTomens, 2017

"But what does it mean?" we may ask whilst staring at an object or arrangement of objects in a gallery, the meaning of which is not obvious - so Conceptual Art has us by the short and curlies - dammit! (the artist, meanwhile, chuckles). Tom Wolfe wrote of the 'painted word' phenomenon and the Need To Explain wherein what was said about a work became more important than the work and so on - at least, as I recall from reading the book long ago (which translates as a couple of years which, as you know, is the equivalent of twenty in the pre-internet era).

I spoke of 'meaning' with friends recently having shown them We Will Kill Images With Meaning. By 'friends' I mean Facebook friends, of course; my audience of mostly actual strangers, which is no different from strangers visiting a gallery showing your work, when you think about it. In fact, it's preferable, isn't it? At least I 'know' them a little, if one is able to glean anything about a friend's posts. Perhaps it's possible. I consider myself quite astute at 'reading' character. We used to have more clues in the old world, such as conversation face-to-face, body language, expression etc. Today we must become adept at reading them another way. To paraphrase the bible: by their posts ye shall know them. Or not.

As I said to them and I'll say to you, dear stranger, there is often 'meaning' in my images and it will be subtle or obvious. There may be more than one and they could also be contradictory. In another sense, the most important meaning in my work is almost invisible. It's what is behind the picture, in my head and heart. That meaning may emerge in texts right here on the blog. Or in the interview (see tag at the top). Otherwise, I know what I mean. perhaps you do too...