:: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 ::

Daunted. By a blank page, a blank canvas, a blank stare.

Today in Art History we learned about the neo-Dada period. In 1951 Robert Rauschenberg created a work called "White Painting" which was, essentially, a blank canvas. Unlike artists who had done this before him, he wasn't trying to express something "through" the absence of form. Rather, he was questioning whether or not objects could, in fact, express anything. He hung his white canvases in galleries and claimed that the shadows of the viewers passing over them was the true art.

Part of me sat there in class, mesmerized, and agreeing. Thinking how interesting the whole thing was.

And the other part of me thought it was a cop-out.

I mean... it's so hard to say. It's like in a movie when they purposely don't allow the audience to hear what one character whispers in another's ear. Is that smart? Is it impossible in some circumstances to write a line that the audience can really understand? Or is it just an easy out - a way to avoid writing something really profound?

I can't decide.

In any case, I'm feeling a bit daunted today. By the blank pages in my Term 2 notebooks. By the blank screen that I sit down to every time I write in here. By the blank void that will eventually be my new website. I feel inept.

... but in a sort of fun, exciting way.


~song~ Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter

:: Katy 4:53 p.m. [+] :: ::