The Meaning of Art

What is the meaning of a work of art? Does it even have one?

Whenever I create a painting, I'm trying to create a pleasing image but also trying to communicate a thought, a story, or an emotion. I’m not always sure at the start what that message is. But, as the surrealist painter Salvador Dali said 

“The fact I myself do not understand what my paintings mean, while I am painting them, does not imply that they are meaningless”.

Consider this painting of Sitting Bull. 

Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota native, was born at the edge of the western Great Plains and grew up as a member of a nomadic warrior society. As a young man, he fought against the encroachment of the United States, but in later years he became a star attraction of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.He met, and later “adopted” into his family, the sharpshooter Annie Oakley. He died after being shot (perhaps accidentally) by a member of his own tribe. (More on Sitting Bull >here<.)

So, does this painting merely depict a rather grumpy looking old hippie with a funny hat? Is it a meditation for a vanished way of life? Or, is it a reminder that we are all just dog-paddling in the currents of history and we should take each day as a gift? Or, all of the above?

Until next time…

drj