SIGHT

      Art acts as a probing device, seeking the world as it is, as it exists in this moment, before the words that carry cultural burdens are formed. Silence among intelligent people is not good if its source is denial. Ideology is not good if it limits what we acknowledge. Reluctance to see can destroy life.

      To look without seeing is common enough. We could turn our sight inward or close it off but what we feel, know or imagine depends on our intercourse with the world. Our imagination (or conscience) is dependent on what we trust to be true. We can only know this through our senses. Sight is the greatest portal for discovering the world. To see things as they are and discover the attributes which feed our soul I take as my first commandment.

      To see with understanding requires pulling the new sensation across a powerful barrier that exists for our safety. If we were sensitive to all that is available to us, we would not be able to live our lives. Our very nature produces a toughened ‘skin’ between the pressures of the world as it is and the world we believe. It is curious to think that sight is controlled by volition. We often choose not to see a challenge to our beliefs. After the unseen becomes visible we must choose to acknowledge it or not. If it is affecting the world we inhabit we may be required to act: protect ourselves from it, change it or change ourselves by making it part of who we are. The potential for growth is great. Living among contradictions is part of figuring out how we interconnect, how we can balance with the new. It is important not to turn away.

      What do you see in these portraits? I selected these people because what they have chosen to be and who they are depends on how they appear. How we react to them is a mirror of our conditioning. To me their youth dominates all other attributes. They represent transcendent generation, hope of the future, beauty and prowess. This power is brief and it is possible for it to remain unfulfilled. Their existence elicits both pride and apprehension. It is the love of one generation for the next.


      Ann Martin     March 2010