Response to Visual Symposium #6

        This week's visual symposium was the painting presentation, which followed the creation and evolving definition of what is considered "painting." Breaking down the presentation into 7 different subtopics, the presentation illustrated how painting has become an almost abstract term in order to describe artwork that can be viewed or created through a painterly process.
        The first subtopic of painting was the existential conscious. Often times, art becomes an area where the subconscious mind vents, but painting was one of the first mediums to allow us to do so. Paintings often attempt to illustrate how life is brutal, brief, and beautiful, and how all those combined experiences make each life unique. Those experiences also allow us to interpret each painting in a unique experience. The second subtopic of painting was optics, and how painting was one of the first mediums to depict the optic phenomenon. By exploring the scientific nature of how the eye works, painting creates illusions of depth and space. The third subtopic of painting was narrative, and how paintings often attempt to tell stories of smallness, tragedy, and pain. The style in which the artists paints in also gives a narrative of their self.
        The fourth subtopic of painting was site specialty, or the understanding of how one's work interacts with the space it's in. The role a work can play in its place is extremely crucial, especially following subconsciously understood allegories of light/dark for good/evil within a room. The fifth subtopics, politics, is a fairly self-explanatory topic of painting which spans the current political issues of the time represented in paintings. The sixth subtopic, materials, covered how paint can become a metaphor for texture, age, and various other things. Often times, paint is not used simply to convey that it is paint, but rather to depict other objects. Finally, the last subtopic, craft, covered how things beyond the painting canvas can be viewed through painterly lens, and how that can change the way they are created/perceived.
        All in all, it was a very riveting presentation, with several good examples for each subtopic. The presenters were enthusiastic during the speeches, and provided clear, concise examples of each subtopic. This allowed for a clear understand and appreciation of painting, as well as its many facets.