Four weeks in and I’d dare say I’m developing an eye for this stuff. Professor Dan Powell, a decorated instructor at the University of Oregon, gave a presentation in class this week; an impressive one, at that. Powell is an experienced photographer who has taken pictures literally all over the world. His art has been featured in more than one hundred exhibits across the world, and we are fortunate enough to call him our own here at the U of O. I was worried for Powell when he started speaking and his faint whisper sounded a lot like a lullaby I’ve heard in the past, but his work seemed to shout as he projected it to our classroom projection wall. Powell described his work as “photographic language”, and said he became inspired with not only his camera and his photos but the way he could manipulate and layer his images into something that portrayed language and feeling. His recent work connected closely to his dedication and love for traveling, as well as a medical condition that gave him another chance to live, which was a humbling experience for him, he expressed. Powell used the beauty of landscape, sculptures as a stage for his photographic pieces. Being from the Northwest, his passion and love for the outdoors is apparent in his images. To me, this is very special, because I too have a deep love for Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Sure, it’s nice to travel to big cities with warm, dry weather year-round. Or, to mountains with snow 12 months out of the year, but there is something about those four very distinct seasons we see in the Northwest that keep me coming back for more. To see Powell share that same love is like a breath of fresh, Oregon air.
In When You’re Healed, Send Me a Postcard, James Hillman explains that therapy results in self-preoccupation, much like how art, over time, has become more individualistic and lost connection with the outside world. Hillman's point that people have been going into the world unhealed for thousands of years is a valid one. He asks, "Is anyone healed?", and it really made me think. We all have our own issues that affect us on different levels, but I do not think there is one person who is completely level-headed. That being said, people get by with whatever cards their dealt. Some things are better off because of it, and others worse. Carolyn Merchant explains that art has become completely visual with any participation to a "faceless" audience in her interview from Viewing the World as a Process, because there is no direction to anyone in particular. This seems to be quite converse thinking in comparison to last weeks' reading, which said that art shouldn't have any deeper meaning than aesthetic presentation.
I'm beginning to think that Art is what you want it to be and what you make of it. If you want art to move mountains, break barriers, and inspire people, then it will. If you want art to give people something to look it, then do just that. But whatever you do, visit Portland.
http://www.picmet.org/conferences/2005/images/portland3.jpg
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