The other morning when I walked into the gallery I was surprised to find the work table filled with an incredible pile of drying clay pieces. This is clay waiting to be re-worked and used in the creation of something new. It was a gorgeous image of raw materials on their own in their pre-formed state and it really made me think about materials in their natural state and the process an artist goes through with those materials to create. The idea of creation of making is embodied in one often heard in philosophy term: poesies.
Anna M. White's Clay Ryan Kelley at Work Kirsten Bowen's Palette
(photo by Marc Klaus)
Poesies is the activity in which a person brings something into being that did not exist before. Take a moment to think about that. Let that idea sit within you. Allow yourself to imagine creating something that has no form or shape and may only be a vague idea. Your time, work, creativity, and effort allow something entirely new to be produced. Creation is a process and these materials we see in these photographs are the tools and medium for what comes after the idea. The idea goes unseen until it is completed in physical form and even then it may or may not match the idea. Bringing something into existence is an unseen act that starts with a thought or an idea.
It is when we execute the idea and give it form that it becomes art, poesies begins with a simple thought and vision for what can be created by the tools of a given medium. Once the art is brought forth, created it then moves into the realm of techne, another philosophical term. Techne is the capacity to let something be known through seeing. When a work of art is created the artist is allowing something to be known, showing their idea and intent.
The birth of a work of art happens through these two terms.
Once poesies has occurred then the viewer can complete the cycle with the artist through techne. We now know the work of art through seeing it. The artist now knows the work through their own vision of it. The artist’s vision and viewer’s vision can be two different things. What the artist knows and viewer knows when they both see the same work of art is different because knowing comes from experience and as we know all of our experiences and the way we process them are subjective.
" Above & Below" "Standing Strong" "Emerson"
Anna M. White Ryan Kelley Kirsten Bowen