Digital Collage: I Think / Art...it makes you think, dunnit?!

RTomens, 2020

"They make you think, don't they?!" Said the workman, looking at two framed pieces of mine standing on the piano. Here's one...

He spotted one of LJ's paintings first, since it's bigger and on the easel. "Nice straight lines," he said. OK, his appreciation of geometric art may not be that deep, but as a tradesman, he appreciated the skill! We all chuckled. He looked at my work when LJ diplomatically informed him that I was an artist too. Well, he spotted something in them...perhaps just the fact that they're neither common representation nor abstraction in attractive colours. Without reading the content, he noted the inclusion of text.

I rarely intentionally set out to make people think when looking at my art. I suppose there often is content beyond the merely pictorial. Often, what is there somehow imposes itself on me as I create. I hardly ever set out to make a piece about something. I've nothing against Political art, except that most of the Political content is predictable and the art, frequently uninteresting. 

The workman was a good bloke, the kind that may not have formulated clear ideas about certain things but remains open-minded. At least, he was whilst we regaled him with our opinions on various topics whilst he set about draft proofing our door. "You two think a bit differently, don't you?" He said, thus reaffirming our belief that artists are all supposed to think similarly on certain subjects. 

I Think comes from the urge to do something purely 'digital' this afternoon. Although some elements do derive from cut out paper. The shrouded women are mysterious...ghosts, perhaps...phantom beings stalking the earth? I no longer have the information from the original photo. The hand in the advert is reaching for an innocuous 'pill', containing oil of some kind, if I remember rightly. Yet to me it is the hand of all people reaching for a pill that will fix any problem. Unfortunately, there's no pill I can take that will make me a handy man around the flat.

digital art, the meaning of art,, the big pill, collage