Gestures of Viewing Art

“ges-ture: movements of the body

or limbs that express something”   

·         Webster’s Dictionary

I am intrigued by the way people view art.  More precisely my fascination lies in how people, in some way, convey their experience of viewing a piece of artwork on a non-verbal level.  I work from a deep interest in observing people.  Using sketches and/or snapshots for reference, I attempt to depict ways that people communicate through gesture.  In my recent works I have focused on the positions in which people hold their hands when looking at an artwork.

My paintings and drawings are composed of large-scale images of hands in varied positions.  The hands depicted are those of people looking at and thinking about art. I begin by asking someone to either view a work in progress or think about an idea that I am developing.  While they are engaged in this activity, I photograph or sketch the changing positions of the hands.  I try to see what it is the hands reveal about the viewer’s thoughts.  Looking for signs such as tension, openness, gripping, pointing, tugging, etc., my aim is to capture an unwritten body language that conveys information about the viewer’s experience.

Set within the larger composition, additional, more conceptual components emerge—I call these insets.  The insets are sometimes inspired by the hands.  At other times, they might refer to the artwork observed by the viewer.  In either case, the two – the large-scale hands and the inset – have a relationship.  Within the insets I explore imagery and ideas ranging from classical styles in art to our present times.  The insets are my personal interpretations of different forms and styles of art which have intrigued me in my studies of art history and theory.

My interest in hands comes from many places, including my personal act of creating art.  In my very physical involvement with my work, I create, communicate, and influence through my art, which becomes a testimony of my hands.  From the moment I touch the paper on which I work, everything that follows is about the action of my hands.  Rather than using conventional means of painting, my hands are my primary and most fundamental tools.     

I literally use my naked and unprotected hands in creating my work.  The pigments I use are mixed, applied, and manipulated by my hands.  All of the work’s textures and surface variations are products of my hands. In studying hand positions I am becoming aware of possible gestures that communicate an individual’s experiences in a spontaneous, physical way.  Seeing these hand gestures as an unwritten and undocumented form of language makes me curious about the viewers’ thoughts.  How have they understood the work in front of them?  Do they question themselves as to whether they have discovered “a correct interpretation?”  Do they ask what it is that makes them want to look, or be involved or engaged with, the work of art?

In my work I record unspoken messages about a visual experience. The physicality of a viewer creates a realm of fascination.  The use of my physicality in my work creates a threshold of communication.  Between the theories and the questions, my work is simply about the gestures of viewing art.