Inferno in red

[habakuk]

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[Ted Byrne]

My instincts bristle at the bottom of this image. On the one hand that's a very good thing since it instantly makes me react to its originality. OTOH... it distracts m from falling through the image. Hmmmm.... gotta think on this. Maybe it's not instincts at all... maybe it's the wretched tyranny of symmetry which I discussed earlier in reference to another of your recent posts? A lifetime of aesthetic brainwashing caused me to be startled when a set of notes feel discordant. Let me go pour some cerebral antacid into my brain... and then return when the fire's been neutralized :-)

[habakuk]

Hahaa! I knew that would cause trouble and uproar. In fact, it did the same to me... but then, all the problems were gone when I thought "gate" instead of "frame". (I confess, the gate is much easier to see if I had used a black matte...)

To me, to lose the framing was a well working reframing.


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EDIT: removed a logical error...

[eob]

I don't really know how to describe my reaction to this image... I suppose, I should say I am right now a beholder of this particular kind of the beauty - in this particular shot - even though I don't know exactly what is it in this shot to make me think of beauty...

Most people think of beauty when they see a photo of a spectacular sunrise or sunset, or a beautiful flower, or a beautiful young nude. Those are all obvious things of beauty. While I am not unmoved by them in photography (if they are really well photographed), I would rather look at them in reality, not in the photo, painting, drawing, sculpture or literature. I think pictures of those subjects can never look as good as nature itself.

And then, there are subjects like this one: sublimed depictions of fragments of reality that are the beauty of their own. In reality, they are so unassuming that we tend not to see them at all. And yet, in a photo, they take over my imagination, my sensibility, my sense of order and harmony, my awe for the nature and things natural.

Hence, my question: what is that universal ingredient whose presence in a work of art, or, whose lack of presence in a work of mere craft makes us think of beauty? And please, don't tell me that it is an imagination, a deep thought or feeling on my part as a viewer. My question pertains to a work of art - not to a perception of the viewer...

[habakuk]

What a question, eob! I'll take some time and enjoy the train of thoughts it induced... I'll come back later.

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[aprilS]

Fire and ice.

A forest burning, but flower-seeds being carried by the updraft to drift down and germinate once the firestorm ends.

Hot coals falling through the sky. Skeletons of plants revealed.

A precious greeting card burning; a memory irretrievably lost.

Abstractly/aesthetically, I absolutely delight in the tracery of lines and subtle textures of this image.

In presentation, I do feel the need for more weight at the bottom. But my experiments in Photoshop aren't resulting in anything stronger than your instincts!

Edit: P.S. I'm still chewing on the question(s) eob has posed...

[habakuk]

Thanks, April. I tried adding a bottom frame. The only thing that worked a bit better is to use a black matte - so the white area has a clear bottom to stand on. I could also complete the red framing, but this sort of doesn't work for me for reasons I don't fully understand.

It's tough on the expected symmetry... but I can't help it and say it becomes too tamed when I complete the red framing. So, I can only add something that really helps the white area stand on firm grounds, e.g. a black border. But then, this makes the whole scene a bit too hars with the lack-red-white combination.

I was mostly so amazed by the "spider" that I felt the "gate" metaphor was more appropriate than the frame.

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[habakuk]

Here's some background info and a overview shot of the source:
http://www.punctumsaliens.ch/info/eternalrhyme.html

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[aprilS]

Hence, my question: what is that universal ingredient whose presence in a work of art, or, whose lack of presence in a work of mere craft makes us think of beauty? And please, don't tell me that it is an imagination, a deep thought or feeling on my part as a viewer. My question pertains to a work of art - not to a perception of the viewer...

Pondering this question, I keep coming back to some ideas presented in a book titled Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch (1990). In particular:

"I have seen an automobile mechanic open the hood of my car and work with that special sensitivity of hand and eye, that deftness and readiness to absorb surprises, that quality of connectedness and wholeness, which we also recognize in a fine pianist, painter, or poet."

I can imagine beauty in that scenario.

[eob]

I don't know, April. Don't you think that the quote from Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art applies to all professionals, as opposed to specifically artists? I don't mean to imply that professionals can't be artists, but they don't have to be ones...

[habakuk]

I think the "readiness to absorb surprises" is the key part of the statement. This is what I think is a strength of kids - and we have such a hard time to re-discover that ability in the "mature" age.

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