White Sands, acrylic on panel © Michael Maurer Smith 2009

Whether it is a patina born of weather and age or the result of intentional scarring, scumbling, scratching, and dragging by the painter’s brush, etcher’s scribe or limner’s silver rod, all we ever see, with our unassisted eyes, is the surface. It is the gift and curse that reveals itself fully only to those prepared to receive and perceive it.

The surface of the artwork may offer the physical residue of its maker’s feeling. The best ones do. Yet the viewer will never know how much of what he or she sees is the direct expression of the artist’ passion and how much is artifice and deceit—filler and technique.

Paintings, drawing, sculpture, and to a lesser extent photographs, all come into being by human intent and making. They are made knowingly and with a purpose, which imbues them with history and meaning, therefore art is to be seen and read—interpreted in dialog between the viewer and artist, even when the artist is not present.

Art is human skill and imagination made manifest. A sunset may be beautiful but it is not art. Human hands do not make it. It may be enjoyed and shared, but an actual sunset cannot be created, collected and given as a gift from one human being to another or to all.

However, the representation of a sunset may be realized as an art object that can be packaged, shared, reproduced, collected, bought, sold and appreciated. Of course it cannot deliver the experiential joy and suffering of art making nor can it deliver the pleasures of aesthetic contemplation and appreciation to those who lack imagination and receptiveness. Said differently the art experience remains perceptual and individual and the mere possession of the art object means little if its possessor lacks the imagination and knowledge to appreciate what that object may represent.

The surface is never the truth it represents. It may announce meaning or meanings but cannot make them—that is the responsibility of the artist and the viewer. The surface is the invitation to dialog and inquiry and never the end of discussion. Beauty and truth are indeed in the eyes and mind of the beholder.  

© Michael Maurer Smith 2009