More Contact

This image was posted at an earlier stage two months ago.

Seeing Feelings

In his books psychologist Nathanial Brandon writes that visibility is the most central of human social needs. The need to feel seen and part of the world is key to our sense of belonging. Having a person’s attention directly on us is reassurance of our existence at the least, and feels like love at its best. The more and better we feel seen the more we feel loved. An abusive relationship is often sustained by the feeling the person sees you better than others, and though this may be an illusion, the level of attention makes it persuasive. Bad attention is better than no attention. To feel invisible is to disappear to ourselves. We use others’ attitude toward us to locate ourselves in the scene, feel the rippling outward of our presence in the surroundings. How others react to us affects us on a primal level the emotional center of which was seeded in being noticed or not noticed when we cried as babies. Understanding ourselves is our central mystery. Relationships with others aren’t the only way to see ourselves. Within the murky land of unnamed feelings is what matters to us. Responding to art and the particular images that attract reveals what is significant and meaningful to us. When an image strikes a chord it’s because it feels like someone has articulated. a personal truth . Bringing this to conscious awareness is knowledge of the deep structures that organize response to the world. The life of feeling is the living center of art. As philosopher Susanne Langer wrote, “Art looks like feelings feel.” Looking through an art book is not so much about pictures as experiencing moments of shared feeling. Being moved by an artist’s work is connection between human beings about something that mattered to both of them. Response to art mirrors the heart. To identify with the feeling may excavate a shared pain or fear. Art is not just about culture, it’s about psychology. When Edward Munch’s “The Scream” was stolen people were upset. It wasn’t just because of its value to culture but about their personal connection to the emotion in that image (There are four versions two of which have been stolen.) It is consoling and illuminating when intense emotions have been shared and recognized. It affirms our most personal experience and engagement with that feeling.

Re-Portal

Tennis and Cultural Expansion

Watching the French Open this year renews my conviction that human excellence develops from the mix of all nationalities representing a range of styles and backgrounds. The best players school each other, push skills and uplift watchers with their stamina and virtuosity. Through cultural expansion we can move forward as a species, sharing knowledge and perspective. People have a choice about where to give their attention. It’s so much better for the psyche to choose admiration and inspiration. In a time obsessed with labels, individual excellence demonstrates that what matters is what we do, not what we are. Beneath the surface is the rich individuality that produces excellence when following a passionate interest. Watching tennis offers the privilege of sharing the peak moments of dedicated careers. When I was first caught by the look on Bjorn Borg’s face that started me watching tennis, I felt like I was being let in on something deeply private, intense and exposed. The appeal of virtuosity is positive brain chemistry. The satisfaction of pushing our boundaries is available no matter what the personal interest. Finding groups that share that interest can now reach all over the planet. In every area of life, we are enriched by difference. With more different kinds of people and backgrounds, our own choices are expanded. Society needs to make the evolutionary step that moves toward difference, not away. This weekend are the finals of the French Open. The play leading up to them has been outstanding and it’s a time when a shift of generations is underway. The legendary Serena Williams lost and the Russian and Czech in the finals are the next young women to inspire. The men’s final will be a battle between the current #1 from Serbia, Novak Djokovic who has been around two decades and emerging star, Stephanos Tsitsipas from Greece. Women’s Final are at nine am Saturday, men’s at nine am Sunday. They’ll stir some positive brain chemistry and give mirror neurons a workout.

Contact

Reflections on Teaching

One of the best things about teaching has been looking at and talking about student work. Nothing better demonstrates the limitations of words than to see how a single word can mean so many different things to different people. The word is no more than a category for the radically diverse ways we experience it. Given the topic Isolation, particularly in the midst of the COVID pandemic, students created images of moving particularity, merging physical confinement with the psychological impact. No matter how different the details, everyone understood the feeling. This is what we share as a species and why art can help unify in a time when we desperately need it. As classes became more international, the universal feeling that is understood by the mind as a whole through art, connected us in our essence. Visual art is felt in the body which picks up the nuance in small variations that words can’t reach. Each work can stimulate new conversations. After talking about a Chinese student’s painting, she said, “Thank you guys. You described my heart.” Awash in a terrible worldwide focus on surface differences, art connects to the place that we are the same, a place crucial to reinforce right now. Art is not just about culture, it is a picture of human psychology. Teaching has been a way to demonstrate the joy of being involved, the pleasure of giving attention lavishly and like when watering a plant, fostering growth. Showering students with attention is the part I’ll miss most, to watch something ignite and spread as they feel seen through their work. Art helps us past the external shell to where the essence connects. It communicates through generations and widely varied backgrounds. Every artist is a teacher on some level, sharing their insights or questions to stimulate the mind of the viewer. An image can change how we see. Art students always make me optimistic. From a range of difficult circumstances, they willingly draw from the core and make beauty. Thinking about them right now makes me smile as so much individual work through the years floods through my awareness. We share art. We don’t have to own it. Once seen, it’s available in memory. An observation that reflects a point-of-view, window onto a philosophical stance, the feelings resonate beyond words, unifying a diverse group by putting the emphasis on what makes us human. This year’s speeches by students at graduation showed me we’re in good hands. Evidencing a broad, wise and compassionate perspective, their generation will responsibly evolve human minds, tapping the diversity of potential too long overlooked. In the past few years I’ve re-connected to a few students from every decade since the seventies and it startles me even though obvious that the young people I knew could be facing retirement, enjoying results of hard work in middle age, on down to very recent graduates. I feel so lucky to have been part of so many people’s beginnings. They all feel like family to me.

Beyond Night