Meaning

From the beginning there is meaning. In the infant it’s not just perception but also correlation. Recent studies have shown that a nubbed pacifier which has only been in a baby’s mouth will be recognized externally when seen for the first time. One sense easily translates to another. The subsequent choice of a nubbed one over smooth is an early instance of preference attached to how something looked and its familiarity. Life experience accumulates a range of responses to sensation attached to objects and scenes that includes first impressions of preference- rejection, offense, neutrality. Response associations are embedded in how things look by personal experience and shared behavioral patterns basic to our species. We know when someone is about to fall because it’s what we look like if we lose our balance. We feel it in our bodies and might even automatically reach out if they’re close enough to catch. Neurologists have shown that an important part of how we recognize significant others in our life is by the automatic inner preparation that is part of the accustomed pattern of relationship and who has more control in that relationship. Everything we see is fused with a history of how we’ve felt about it. The responses express the meaning. The unconscious sense of absence, that lack of associations, might be the first sensation of difference. Without connections to it, we’re unsure how to respond. Art is a way to extend our range of visual associations through the feeling of the image making a bridge to surface unfamiliarity. We might not know what the specifics mean but if there’s a deeper feeling present, we feel it. By going deeper, we sense the universal. The common human feeling creates connection instead of division. As a sensory experience art reaches that linked core of response where sensation meets feeling, the summary of what something means to us. How we respond begins with this essence which is why experiencing art is so personal. Wherever there is a strong response signals an emotional connection to experience that shares that feeling and builds awareness of the personal emotional climate. Recent neuroscience has shown that art makes linkages throughout the brain which is why programs like VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) are so successful at improving children’s test scores in all subjects. Looking at art and talking about what they see improves creative use of language and builds circuits that reach from the center out into all associated areas. Description of mood and feelings in a painting create mental patterns that resonate through the senses and are deeply linked creating expectations that form our intuitive response to different visual structures. Art extends our range of meaning.