The Hub July 2015 | Page 9

Eva Antonel Recently, I took part in a conversation about the definition of good art. As most conversations do, it had arguments from very different perspectives. The point of contention seemed to focus on the question of whether an artist's talent should be judged by how closely he or she can replicate the scene before their eyes. Some argued that it takes real talent to reproduce a scene in such detail that it barely differs from the real thing. The implication was that those that do not, must not be able to. Those that choose to express themselves through abstract art are, therefore, least talented of all. We spoke about beauty being in the eye of the beholder, about how different types of images appeal to different people. We spoke about reality and perception, technique and skill. But the hardest thing to define was that intangible quality that separates one piece from another, one artist from the next, art from pseudo art. I was given the example of a well-known painter who reproduced the glow of street lights in a rain-soaked city scene. They lit the street with a quality reminiscent of many such scenes. The lights of passing cars shone in just the right way and reflected from store windows just as you would expect them to. I had to agree that the image was clearly a representation of what the artist was seeing, but so is an architectural drawing, or a blueprint for that matter. It is one thing to be technically good at following principles of design; it is another to be able to have a work of art speak to our soul. It takes an artist to see the pathos In memory of Mary Walzak Atkinson January 26, 1939 June 19, 2015 behind the image and to be able to show it to us. As hard as it is to technically replicate an image, it takes talent to convey a feeling through that representation. That is what differentiates the technician from the artist. I may not be an art critic but I know that my breath catches and my eyes well up when I see something that speaks to me beyond what my eyes can communicate. Fiction, someone recently observed is "the great lie that tells the truth." The same can be said of all art forms. Good art is so much more than skill and technique. It's that intangible way that all the elements come together and allow us to recognize the familiar and at the same time to see the world in a new way. Like a kindred spirit, it makes us feel a part of a whole while broadening our horizons and taking us places we'd never considered before. Best of all, it changes who we are by the experience, making all future experiences new and familiar all over again. The talent lies in showing us what is and also what could be, making the world a much more vibrant place. How do you support local artists? Tweet us @TheHubWE #artmatters July 2015 - The HUB 9