Carole Russell Art Weblog

I went to the Open Art Exhibition at Nottingham Castle Museum (England) today and although my own art was not accepted I roamed the gallery looking for something I thought was good (what I mean by that is better than mine) I did not enjoy the experience. I thought most were not as good as mine – how rude is that!

Now several hours later, something has just dawned on me whether I like other peoples art or not doesn’t matter, what matters is what art is all about.

It’s simple:

Art (in whatever form) gives the viewer the permission to stand an stare at it. Doesn’t matter whether you like it or not. In this world how often do we get that opportunity to do that – just stare? We are so busy or so fed up or looking at the ground instead of all around us (where true beauty is every day) we are scolded by our parents at an early age – “Don’t stare at the gentleman!” – yet at that age we are prepared to stare, we need to stare to soak everything up, to learn, to build our knowledge but soon we learn its’ not polite and so we stop and the words of our elders stay with us for life “Don’t stare”

Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s ok, I actually want people to stare at my work, not give it a glance and turn away. Look, wait, soak it up SEE what is there, see what isn’t there – give it time (not 5 minutes on the clock) but your precious time, time out, space, nothing – just look – you never know you might see! – just like when you were a child and pushed your nose up against the cake shop window to see the colours, textures and shapes to see how good it all was!

So here’s to all us artists, we are all in our own way, our own style or genre, giving people the precious comodity of time – and that’s not easy in this day and age!