{"id":7181,"date":"2016-10-20T14:29:21","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T14:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181"},"modified":"2016-10-18T14:56:27","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T14:56:27","slug":"one-way-art-can-change-a-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181","title":{"rendered":"One way art can change a world"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Matisse,

Matisse, Bouquet de fleurs pour le Quatorze Juillet, 1919<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ve been having a conversation with Jennifer Wenker, the director of the Herndon Gallery at Antioch College, in which we have been touching on\u00a0the role of art in human life. She has a show up now,\u00a0Image: The Public Face,\u00a0<\/em>that relates to her deep interest in how art can promote social justice. It’s part of the FotoFocus Biennial in Cincinnati, an area-wide exploration with dozens of institutional participants that examines how photography does and doesn’t document reality and truth, and it has\u00a0a postmodern twist of calling into question even the basic notions\u00a0of reality and truth themselves. A central theme of the show is how photography has given power and a voice to people who otherwise wouldn’t have much of either–flattening the hierarchy that once put the painter\u00a0in control of another person’s self-image and gave the privilege of a portrait to only the rich, powerful, and privileged. The spread of photography first through the invention of the Kodak camera and now through the popularity of the smart phone has thus become a force for social justice.<\/p>\n

I’ve known and respected Jennifer for many years now. I participated in one of her art projects by tossing seeds into the wind down in the Finger Lakes, a memorable moment for me. (I like describing it that way because it sounds like a randomly\u00a0beautiful thing to do, though the project\u00a0actually had a hidden agenda involving birds. I must admit the\u00a0fact that it had this agenda made it a great art project.) I both admire what the gallery is doing with this\u00a0show and am\u00a0intrigued by the questions it raises. Yet, in this conversation we’ve been having about the\u00a0show, I also feel a slightly\u00a0contrarian itch, as is my wont, to push back against the appropriation of art for any\u00a0purpose, including social change. It isn’t that I think it’s wrong-headed. It’s simply that I’m most interested in art that works in unanticipated ways that are as fundamentally unpredictable and rich as the impact of one human being on another. I feel this itch, not because I am against social change, but because I think that harnessing\u00a0art to any conscious<\/em> purpose is to diminish its most fertile and\u00a0unpredictable potential. To create art to serve a particular purpose suppresses the way the human mind discovers what it needs to create within<\/em>\u00a0the process of creation. Art devoted to an effort to illuminate what’s wrong with the world is admirable, legitimate, and at this historical\u00a0moment, it seems, of far more interest to visual art’s institutional\u00a0arbiters\u00a0than work pursuing strictly\u00a0aesthetic ends. I have no gripe with that; who could argue with anything that helps make the world a better place? In fact,\u00a0doesn’t most postmodern art have a critical edge, a sly smirk\u00a0that calls into question how everything works in the contemporary world, as a way of freeing people from it? Isn’t that healthy, as long as skepticism doesn’t slide into cynicism?<\/p>\n

Yet I envision differently\u00a0how art changes people and therefore\u00a0changes the world. While reading the New York Times Magazine<\/em> this past weekend, I came across a paragraph\u00a0that stuck me as the perfect distillation of\u00a0my views\u00a0on the role of art in life and how pure aesthetics can have just as powerful an effect on people as anything created explicitly as a tool for change. As a brief anecdote, it almost offers all the justification for art anyone would need, showing with\u00a0lyric\u00a0brevity how art can sustain and nourish the soul of someone who loves it.<\/p>\n

The story<\/a> was a first-person narrative from a young woman who had become addicted to Adderall, an amphetamine commonly used to treat ADHD. The description of it made it sound better to me than heroin, as well as a temporary cure\u00a0for everything that ills my\u00a0aging mind. I can imagine sinking into the use of that drug wholeheartedly for a few intensely, ecstatically productive years, ending in a long period of twitchy\u00a0stasis and anomie. Her story talked about how steep a price she paid and how great it was to escape from the drug’s\u00a0grip. Here are the sentences that, for me, are all but a manifesto for painting done for no other purpose than painting itself.<\/p>\n

In the end, <\/strong>I did not get off Adderall alone. I had a brilliant psychiatrist. I believe she saved my life. On the wall of her office, she had a single image: a framed print of an Henri Matisse painting. Through our time together, Matisse came to stand for the creative process. You start one place, go through hell and wind up somewhere else, somewhere that surprises you.<\/p>\n

In that last sentence she was talking about the creative process of becoming the person she wanted to become and how art helped her get there. But it’s also a perfect description of the act of painting as well. If you already know what you’re hoping to convey, in a painting, or in your life,\u00a0then it isn’t going to hold any of the most fertile sort of surprises for you when you’re done. (It will be surprising one way or another, but not in the\u00a0best way.) Finishing a painting should be like unwrapping a gift you feel you don’t quite\u00a0deserve when you finally see it and couldn’t have clearly\u00a0imagined ahead of time. If that’s how it came into the world, there’s a good chance others will feel that way about it too. And that for me is the whole point. Matisse, who as far as I can tell cared not a whit\u00a0about social issues, helped change this woman’s world, and maybe he helped make the rest of her life possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been having a conversation with Jennifer Wenker, the director of the Herndon Gallery at Antioch College, in which we have been touching on\u00a0the role of art in human life. She has a show up now,\u00a0Image: The Public Face,\u00a0that relates to her deep interest in how art can promote social justice. It’s part of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOne way art can change a world - represent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"One way art can change a world - represent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’ve been having a conversation with Jennifer Wenker, the director of the Herndon Gallery at Antioch College, in which we have been touching on\u00a0the role of art in human life. She has a show up now,\u00a0Image: The Public Face,\u00a0that relates to her deep interest in how art can promote social justice. It’s part of the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"represent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-20T14:29:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/matisse.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dave dorsey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"dave dorsey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=7181#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=7181\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"dave dorsey\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\"},\"headline\":\"One way art can change a world\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-20T14:29:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=7181\"},\"wordCount\":983,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=7181#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/matisse.jpeg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=7181#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=7181\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=7181\",\"name\":\"One way art can change a world - represent\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=7181#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=7181#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/matisse.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-20T14:29:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=7181#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=7181\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=7181#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/matisse.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/matisse.jpeg\",\"width\":1800,\"height\":2394,\"caption\":\"Matisse, Bouquet de fleurs pour le Quatorze Juillet, 1919\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=7181#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"One way art can change a world\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"represent\",\"description\":\"the painting life\",\"alternateName\":\"the dorsey post\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\",\"name\":\"dave dorsey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"dave dorsey\"},\"description\":\"I'm a painter living in Pittsford, NY. I've authored two books and also work as a ghostwriter. I sell my work through Oxford Gallery, and have exhibited around the U.S. and internationally.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.daviddorsey.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"One way art can change a world - represent","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"One way art can change a world - represent","og_description":"I’ve been having a conversation with Jennifer Wenker, the director of the Herndon Gallery at Antioch College, in which we have been touching on\u00a0the role of art in human life. She has a show up now,\u00a0Image: The Public Face,\u00a0that relates to her deep interest in how art can promote social justice. It’s part of the […]","og_url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181","og_site_name":"represent","article_published_time":"2016-10-20T14:29:21+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/matisse.jpeg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"dave dorsey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"dave dorsey","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181"},"author":{"name":"dave dorsey","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57"},"headline":"One way art can change a world","datePublished":"2016-10-20T14:29:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181"},"wordCount":983,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/matisse.jpeg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181","name":"One way art can change a world - represent","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/matisse.jpeg","datePublished":"2016-10-20T14:29:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/matisse.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/matisse.jpeg","width":1800,"height":2394,"caption":"Matisse, Bouquet de fleurs pour le Quatorze Juillet, 1919"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=7181#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"One way art can change a world"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/","name":"represent","description":"the painting life","alternateName":"the dorsey post","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57","name":"dave dorsey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"dave dorsey"},"description":"I'm a painter living in Pittsford, NY. I've authored two books and also work as a ghostwriter. I sell my work through Oxford Gallery, and have exhibited around the U.S. and internationally.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.daviddorsey.com"],"url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7181"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7207,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7181\/revisions\/7207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}