Duncan Jui John Wafer English 105 10/31/2018 Jeannette Winterson Freewriting Reading this excerpt written by Jeannette Winterson opened my eyes regarding art and how little appreciation I actually had towards art. In school, we were always briefly introduced and hardly educated regarding famous pieces of art, at least in my school this was how I was exposed to art. Going to museums and galleries with art pieces, I tend to focus on the aesthetic appeal to art and works rather than I guess the “deeper meaning” or “spiritual” aspect regarding art, something that Winterson introduces to me in her novel. I find myself relating closely with Winterson’s list of symptoms that people tend to experience once staring at a painting or any form of art. “Increased distraction” is certainly one of them. I am an individual who tends to spend most of his day within his thoughts, and thinking about past experiences, future experiences, and fictional scenarios as well. I tend to question the great wonders of the world and my mind brings me to endless possibilities. Distraction is certainly something I experience when not only looking at a painting, but when doing a task that doesn’t require my undivided attention. “Increasing Invention” is another thing I often experience. This somewhat goes along with daydreaming as well, as I question the meaning behind the painting and why is it made. Questions like “What motivated the artist/creator to make this piece of art?” and “Did the artist mean for his or her work to be seen literally or is there a deeper meaning behind each element?”. “Irritation”, however is not something I experience. I am well aware that pictures and art isn’t supposed to be responsive and do not believe any supernatural personification type of instance to occur when looking at a piece of art. I am also well understood that as humans, we should admire painting not by the painting itself, but the work that the artist put in to make the painting the way it is. Certain paintings that require lots of skill and incorporate many beautiful details such as shadow, facial features, etc. certainly receive my admiration. One thing that certainly pointed out to me was that we as spectators tend to canonize artists, and once they die we only then tend to appreciate their works more. As famous and recently deceased XXXTentacion once said “Nobody cares until you’re dead”. This statement has slowly becoming truer to me, as it seems people only recognize others only after they are deceased, and begin to be more appreciative of what they done or what they did. Towards the end of the chapter, Winterson talks about an experience he previously had with a stockbroker, in which he asked him how he could learn more about wine. The stockbroker replied with “drink it”. I feel as if this simple interaction is symbolic for many experiences in life. You will never know or experience something unless one puts themselves out there and actively goes to try new things. I have never really found myself appreciative of art, and while I do value and appreciate the work that these artists put into their work, I have never experienced a spiritual or deeper connection to a piece of painting before. If I wanted to learn more about the non-superficial aspects of paintings and artwork, perhaps I would need to expose myself to a variety of different arts and paintings to try and develop and deeper understanding of art.
