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The Original Question

Stone Conversations : Archive 6 : Message 00129

From: Bill Marsh <bmarsh54@zzzzzzzzzzzzz>
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2004 00:44:24 -0400
Subject: The Original Question

Bob Hackett wrote:

Quoted text begins.What do you think he meant?Was he saying it didn't have to be beautiful to
be meaningful?
End of quote.


"Weight" is a good word (gravitas?). Visual weight, perhaps. Meaning
might be too strict, as I think meaning is something of which the viewer
provides a great deal. The artist's meaning and the viewer's can have
little to do with one another, and the work can still be successful.
As Bob, Elaine, and others have said, it's something that touches you
inside, as an artist and as a viewer. And it's amazing how what you
feel about your own work can change after it is done, and has been
responded to by others. Many unconscious processes are at work here, I
think.

My friend was trying to get me to think differently about what a work
requires to be successful. I hate to say "pleasing" (nasty word). At
the time I was having a lot of trouble relaxing old standards, from 20
years in photography, about what is beautiful. I was afraid to let it
all hang out and take that leap of faith into unknown territory. So he
yelled at me to push me off square one. It worked. My work changed
irrevocably after that, and I'm grateful for that.

Bill Marsh

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