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The Foot Eating Man

Blogs: #12 of 13

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The Foot Eating Man

In my last blog entry, I told the story of an encounter with a coworker regarding my artwork. That encounter was strange enough in its own right, but it pales by comparison to the one that I had with 'The Foot Eating Man'.

While occupying some downtime at work, I happened to be browsing my online gallery at Fine Art America. As I looked at one image after another, a relatively new coworker who had been watching over my shoulder suddenly says:

"You don't think that is ART do you? I mean... really..."
I turned to him with a bemused look on my face and asked "Why wouldn't I?"
"Well, when I look at art, I want to see something beautiful. Not headless people running around, or people with animal heads. It is ugly. I would not buy that."

After a moment of laughing at the situation, I told him that most people who actually buy art are only looking for something that matches their furniture to their drapes and have little or no interest in artwork designed to provoke thought. I was still clicking from one image to the next as I spoke. As I clicked on one image in particular, he stops me and says "You see... like THAT one... what is THAT supposed to be? I would not buy that." He was speaking of my image 'Dreaming of a Nameless Fear'.

I looked at him and dropped the bomb:

"You do realize that this is MY artwork... don't you?" I moved the pointer over ‘by John Alexander’ to emphasize my point.

The look of incredulity on his face was utterly priceless. I could almost see him eating his own foot. Before he could speak, I let him off the hook. I told him that I did not take his view personally. I explained that we are all unique individuals equipped with our very own interpretations of what we find appealing. I then scrolled down the page, showing him comment after comment after comment and said that luckily for me, there are plenty of people out there who enjoy what I do.

I pointed out that my images have purpose. While looking at ‘Dreaming of a Nameless Fear’ I said:

"You see a monstrous, headless figure chasing a terrified man across a gray and gloomy dreamscape... and you think it looks ugly." I looked at him meaningfully. "It IS meant to be ugly in a way. Look at the title… look at the description. It is an image that illustrates the terrors of subconscious fear and anxiety. In your dreams, your fears do not always have a face... which makes them even more monstrous. All of my images have such meanings. You simply have to look at them differently than the way you look at paintings of flowers or landscapes."

I am quite certain his opinion was not swayed in the least. His perception of what he finds appealing was not changed for the sake of my explanation. This does not bother me in any way. As I mentioned already, we are all unique individuals. We have our very own opinions. Not everybody looks for profound meaning in artwork. Not everybody thinks art needs to have a point.

Look at all of the artists and photographers who make a living off of flowers… plants… butterflies… boats… birds…fruit baskets… puppies and kittens. There is nothing thought provoking, nothing profound, and nothing meaningful in such things. They are easy to identify with. People buy them because they are familiar. You can go anyplace that sells art and find these images in abundance. They sell because they are easy to look at. Hell, even I can enjoy looking at familiar things.

Not everybody likes the surreal or the abstract. Not everybody wants a message. Not everybody wants to look at something profound. And of course, not everybody is going to be drawn to what I do. I am fine with that. The world of art has room for everything. I hope that in the end, people will look at what I do and find it to be important. I feel as if it is.

Despite my encounter with ‘The Foot Eating Man’ I feel quite alright with the direction I have taken creatively. I personally find quite a bit of beauty in what I do, and do not find it to be ‘ugly’ as he so pointedly stated. The Foot Eating Man can go buy a picture of a kitten sniffing a flower as far as I am concerned!

As always, I appreciate you taking the time to stop by… thank you for reading.

-John Alexander