Unrecognized Emotions

In my drawings, one reason I try to keep recognizable objects out of my work is because I want to focus on the feeling itself. Deep feelings can be very complex and human psychology has as many variations as there are individuals. Verbal descriptions can’t cover it. Stories can do it, but they need time to unfold. The feeling in an image is there in the seeing, needs no explanation. Just like you don’t need to describe what you’re doing if you’re walking around obstacles on a wooded path, anything visual uses the language of perceptional intelligence which starts its meaning with the feeling. When a surface area has an identity like sky, water or skin the meaning depends on the condition of the area, relies on the quality. Diseased skin is quite different than smooth. The qualities and conditions in a composition convey a dynamic essence that can make an impression without attaching it to content. If a drawing strikes a chord, then a connection is forged that can trigger a person’s associated thoughts, sometimes with a feeling as yet unrecognized. Feelings represent a personal truth forged from the individual experience. Much of American culture is training in hiding, suppressing, and ignoring feelings. Family pressures to keep feelings in check are considered necessary to polite behavior. Even to have some feelings at all is treated as a personal failing. Others don’t recognize feelings because they’re inconvenient, get in the way of profits or maintaining external images of the self, projected for others. People turn away from uncomfortable realities that threaten personal comfort. Unrecognized feelings make people vulnerable to demagogues who tap the invisible pain and label it with a cause. The enemy then becomes an acceptable way to vent pain, rage, and grievance. A clear example is in the widespread stoking of antagonism by the 45th president. Unable to cope with losing, his rhetoric is completely at odds with reality, a pattern of tyrants throughout history. They know rational argument doesn’t work on those hypnotized by manipulation of their pain. They need the outlet for the intense feelings accumulated. So much hidden pain shows a failure of love. And tyrants tell their followers that only they care about them, thus providing the love. Like political propaganda that focuses on negative emotions, creating love for the earth cannot depend on persuasion. That’s why it’s so good to see many artists building care for nature into their work. To stimulate love for the earth is to strengthen our connection and care for it.