Art comes in many different forms, whether that being photography, cinematography, poems, sculptures, or even in nature. I have always been an individual to lean more towards photography, cinematics, writing and nature. However, I think I have found my new appreciation for artwork. Artwork, actually, isn’t just “sculptures”, like how I stated before, but they are paintings, plates from ancient findings, and even hanging lights. After going to the Baltimore Museum of Art, I was exposed to the different forms of artwork. Upon walking around the museum I was already skeptical. How could people actually stand here and stare at this painting of a woman from the 1800’s and feel connected? To me it seemed far out and ridiculous. As time went on though, I began to see different types of artwork, and soon have deeper connections.
I remember walking in one of the corridors and it being extremely bright, I thought to myself “Gosh these lights are so harsh!” Then something told me to look up and I was instantly amazed. A ceiling covered in dangling rustic industrial lighting, spatially placed, some bigger then others. It was so aesthetically pleasing, I remember thinking to myself, can I buy this and put it in my house? But, it probably was worth my college tuition times ten. After a solid five minutes of hurting my neck from starring at the ceiling I walked over to the plaque on the wall to read the information about the artwork. It was by, Spencer Finch, called Moon Dust. The story behind this work had to do with the NASA’s 1972 Apollo Mission. The crew returned back with samples of moon dust. Finch in this light display replicated the chemical composition of that substance. Each bulb representing one element bonded in its molecule (oxygen, magnesium, silicon, aluminum, calcium, titanium, chromium, or iron). There was also a reason to the different size bulbs, the heavier the element the bigger the bulb. Looking back at the ceiling, it all made sense, and a smile shot across my face. Coming from a science background I had a huge appreciation for it. I felt immerged into space for those five minutes, it was quite poetic of Spencer Finch. Right then and there, it clicked, now I get why people stand in front of artwork for five minutes or five hours, because they are immersed into a deep trans of their own.
Moving across the corridor into another room, the Mark Bradford exhibit really caught my eye. This probably has to be one of my favorite exhibits here in the museum. Mark portrays mythology, science and art into all his “paintings”. Why I put paintings in quotation is because Bradford does not actually use paint to display his art. His exhibit of the siren painting intrigued me. Three paintings facing one another seen to set the illusion of reflection. However, each one is a different alluring siren to Bradford. The dark tones of the painting make me feel as if I’m immersed into the depths of the ocean looking up. An eerie yet comfortable feeling. Which is exactly what sirens used to do to people. They used to lure people in making them fall into this hypnotized state, but only to be put into a threating, eerie situation. However, the transition to the next room of Bradford’s exhibit was drastic. The paintings went from silent to loud. The paintings were of bright tones, and harsh feeling. Go Tell It On The Mountain makes you feel vulnerable mentally. It was like, I was into the situation of what it was like after a siren has you in their trap. It was extremely weird how the two connected. The bright loud colors made it hard for me to think and attend to my own thoughts. Again, so poetic, how do these artist do it?
I don’t think I, or anyone can really understand how artist can make something feel so poetic and have a thousand different meanings for a thousand different people. One of the things I took away from this experience as a whole though is that art is supposed to be perceived from your perspective and not so much what the artist truly intended. To some they might think, well that is so pointless. Which I understand, why spend so much time on a piece of artwork that was based on your feeling to have it mean either something differently less or more to the viewers? But, that is what art is all about…the feelings and thoughts you gather from the artwork.