Merging

My research has been in cognitive aesthetics. After seven years of teaching and 35 years of being an artist, I realized that the perception of beauty, unlike Santayana’s belief that aesthetics are constant, can and does change. Artists don’t create just by gut instinct but also use cognition. My research also shows that aesthetics are influenced by culture, morals, and social conventions. Many artists and people who write about aesthetics feel that to create art, we must separate ourselves from our humanity. I disagree. I know these feelings of separation and detachment, yet I also know that when I create I feel more human. In Merging, I started with two collaged paintings on unstretched canvas. One is made up of photos of my family painted in blue and cut horizontally. The other is made up photos of my art and myself painted in warm colors and cut in rough vertical flames. I wove them together to show that in my life, my art merges with my family life—not smoothly and evenly—but rough and uneven—some parts hidden, some parts exposed. Researching and exposing my creative life allows me to understand my students who have their own aesthetic sensibilities.