Essential Art: Art as common ground

At the foundation of life there are core elements that are present in all societies - emotions, needs, and desires. Art, here referring to visual arts, plays a vital role in helping people express and process these elements. It helps humans communicate about the core of life without words. Beyond language and time, art is its own method of communication. Art employs objective formal qualities such as line, form, contrast, and balance to convey ideas. It also uses subjective connections and self-referral to help attract engagement. As such, reducing art down to the essentials is the best way to relay clear ideas that can be interpreted by various audiences regardless of time or location.

To determine what is essential to art, the artist needs to understand their own personal foundation and architecture. They need to be aware of what they can change within themselves and their work. That knowledge will allow them to get the purest, most accurate expression of themselves in that moment. It is equally important to know what cannot be changed, because the alteration of some elements could cause instability or collapse. This knowledge of personal foundations is based on natural principles and is not dictated by human construct. My aim is to guide artists to discovery of their own natural structure and the nature of art.