Expression and Telepathy
Expression and Telepathy
Elizabeth Williams
Personally, art has forever been a release for me. When all the rampant passion I feel at the simple wonders of being alive sets fire to the more practical parts of my brain, I paint. Magically, it is a way of liberating that overwhelming rush of euphoria that wells up at the pit of the soul after long period of living, seeing. Anything to share the churning waves of simply existing, eyes-wide-open, is worth all the effort in the world. It should therefore be no surprise that I find expressionism one of the most powerful movements in the history of the arts, perhaps in concept rather than the actual work produced at the officially named time. Such profound beauty exists in the idea of sharing passion so sharply without having to utter a word or meet the audience, and expressionism is the ultimate release.
There is much more to art than form and aesthetics; art is telepathy. The transduction of feelings and thoughts from one human mind to another without the intervention of words or direct contact is truly a thing of magic, and a skill that impressionist and expressionist painters alike are exceedingly in touch with. Expressionism shouldn’t be thought of as an isolated historical movement, but rather the pervading touch of humanity illuminated by the strokes of an artist’s brush, or the colors he uses. In this way, through a single flick of the wrist, an entire story may be born. Unlike the earlier styles of art, emphasis is placed not on form and likeness but instead on feeling, movement, and mood. The technique of applying media—textures, brushstrokes, etc.—then becomes a part of the art itself, each element serving as an almost diaphanous portal through which the viewer can glimpse directly into the artist’s soul.
But again, one mustn’t completely divide the evolution of art into separated movements when the elements of each can be found in almost every era. In fact, there are several instances before the official start of impressionism, even as early as the high renaissance, where the artist’s passion overtakes his technical abilities to imitate reality allowing the work to seize a moodier quality. Take Rembrandt, for example; the freedom of his brushstrokes and easy application of color holds a nearly impressionistic tone—a movement which flowed directly into the expressionist styles thriving today. It seems that the artists with insight enough to understand, whether consciously or not, the subjective nature of their observations have produced the most touching works in history. Impressionism especially played a major role in the push for subjective realization, as great minds such as Manet and Degas challenged the traditional assumptions about living in an objective universe by breaking color and form down to their rawest components, offering their own introspective slants to reality. The expressionists took this strategy one step further by seemingly throwing visual reality out the window completely and creating poignant, emotion-driven works often disturbing in their intensity. Creators of expressionist art are unafraid to spill the concentration of their emotions; they feel much, and long to share.
I am proud to call myself a painter, and a very expressive one at that. It’s my way of becoming intimate with the universe and its inhabitants, because I know that no matter how distant the viewer (or how seldom), he will gaze upon my most exposed feelings and if even for a split second share them. It’s my small way of unifying the human race.
