Zoom

What is the purpose of art?

Amongst the many varied definitions that popped up when I googled the above, the one that jumped off my screen came from artist Erik Wahl 

The purpose of art is to produce thinking.  Artwork should be an active verb - a lens by which to view the world and not a passive noun. 

This is what I'm aiming for with my penchant for taking close up photograph and the subsequent hashtags about mindfulness that undoubtedly accompany them on Instagram. The art of seeing beauty in the everyday, when you open your eyes wide enough to notice what is already there in front of you.  As a creative practice is has served me well and definitely played a significant part in helping me learn to live in the moment but, as we hurtle ever faster towards Christmas, attending to the detail in my life is just inducing a state of panic and I desperately need to find a way to step away and see the bigger picture.

Thankfully a reminder to change focus appeared, quite literally, on the horizon earlier this week whilst wondering around the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in search of that day's photo location for my little black dress.  Sean Henry's Seated Figure, sat looking out over the landscape, could at first glance be mistaken for an actual man, it is only as you get nearer that you become ever increasingly aware of the altered scale of the sculpture.  No such mistake to be made with Joana Vasconcelos' Solitário, a seven-metre high ring made of golden car wheel rims and a diamond crafted from crystal whisky glasses, but nonetheless a nudge to the fact that I perhaps I need to change perspective.

With further contemplation I have decided that mindful living is really about finding a balance between the two and that when I start to feel overwhelmed I need to alter the zoom lens through which I view my life. 

With that in mind, I'm going to love you and leave you for today, I've other things I need to be doing. I'm not going to stress about it, quite the contrary I'm going to go and enjoy my cup of tea and let the work of Sean and Joana do the talking...











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