But that word is inaccurate because though that piece may very well exist as a form, as a thing, as an object, what makes it art is the fact that, it is a vibrant unity created from disparate elements: thoughts, words, feelings, sensations, movements, notes, lines or splashes of paint. Past definitions for art may have relied on the word “form” to describe the resulting piece. Strong emotions in the perceiver may then be elicited: surprised by joy disturbed by fear. This allows the perceiver/receiver to experience a reconstruction within the sphere of their own feeling-world – entirely without the use of concepts. Art succeeds when it extracts the refined essence of an intuition or an experience so effectively that it can evoke something similar in the viewer. This is true in acting, in writing, in music, in dance and in the visual arts. Every artist knows that the less said the better, that craft means being succinct. This is where craft of the artist comes in. Art as an expression-and-communication speaks to it all. Felt-intuitions penetrate deeper, are both singular and personal. This may be the reason why the biographies of many famous artists depict their lifetimes as a series of taboo-crossings – for like many rock-n-roll icons – not every lover is left alive. Cultural/upbringing factors may indeed encourage attractive emotions which, when expressed as “art” become simply superficial, while those same upbringing factors may force unattractive emotions to either be repressed or suppressed. In addition, not everyone gives themselves permission to be in contact with their own deeper levels and to express themselves from those spaces. Yet not everyone possesses the capacity to objectify evanescent feelings or intuitions, that is, to recreate them effectively. The artist needs to be grounded in his or her own experience in order to communicate directly from it, extracting the essential. Art can speak directly, viscerally and transcendentally to the person, to the transpersonal (mythic or religious imagery) or the supra-personal (abstraction) levels – or all three simultaneously (!).Įveryone experiences emotions and felt-intuitions yet the artist has the capacity to communicate such things with a certain amount of intelligent-yet-sensitive detachment. (which is, by the way, a good example of non-duality) The word feelings too, is inadequate because it does not include the knowing aspect of the word “gevoelsmatig”, for the greatest art communicates a sense of meaning even – or especially if – that meaning is not entirely understood. Rather most, if not all, speak to and through the senses, describing/communicating how some external or internal event felt to the artist, allowing the perceiver/receiver to experience something similar. Using the word emotion especially to describe art would, I feel, be reductive because not all instances of art are transmissions of emotion. In English I have chosen the compound word felt-intuition as a translation for gevoelsmatig instead of emotion or feelings. Birds know when to fly south, humans know when a relationship has ended: it’s gevoelsmatig. Nevertheless, it’s a subject-based channel for acquiring “knowledge”, self-knowledge. It refers to an inception, a feeling-knowing which may be based on sensations, emotions, or impressions not entirely understood and so (at least to the subject, but also to others) may appear irrational. Gevoelsmatig refers to a sensitively refined, intuitive, instinct-type of feeling-knowing that is not only fundamental to all forms of art but to existence itself. I’ve written about that word (particularly in the context of Western philosophy) here and here. The Dutch word, gevoelsmatig guides me here. It might be helpful to unpack that a little bit. Translated and expanded into English the definition becomes: a felt-intuition succinctly and evocatively expressed/communicated as a sense-based unity. The “gevoelsmatig” element refers to the channel of consciousness on which it vibrates, while the “einheid” element (which I’ve also written about here) refers to the unifying thrust inherent to the creative process as well as to its manner of perception. Art is: (in the Dutch language) een gevoelsmatig einheid.
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