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When I was young, everything wonderful was “cool” or “fantastic”. Those words of exclamation are not used much today. “Sick” is the new powerful word of amazement, though I haven’t begun to use this new form of praise. Communication is always evolving. For example: Though I love to read, reading Shakespeare takes me quite awhile to understand each sentence. Today his beautiful words have changed meaning and expression.

Paintings are amazing forms of communication, too. They are visual images of emotions and stories told without words. Yet, they, too, are always evolving in their ways to communicate. Visual images that inspired our grandparents are evolving for the Millennials: the new young art appreciators, buyers and collectors. Just like their spoken language, their visual language is also different from our parents’ language. Yes, they also want the same emotions and feelings in their paintings, but they want them created with different “words”. As artists, we can “say” the same thing we have said for decades in our paintings, but are we really reaching these new art lovers when we use the old “words” in our paintings.  It is up to us to “speak” their language if we want to reach these new art lovers.

How do we do this? We listen. We observe. We read. We create from their perspective. Those of us that have been painting for several decades are set in our ways. We have worked hard to perfect our “look”, our “style” and our way of communicating in paint.

All this does not have to be set aside. Just like our English language and the evolution of words. The standard “words” in paint (your way with paint) are just as useful, but they need to be updated with new fresh ways of communication. Adding just a few new twists into your work will speak to the new generations. Once again we have choices to grow.

Just like the spoken and written word, if Shakespeare were alive today, he might even slip in the new exclamation “sick” to reach his younger audience.

I would like to take steps in my work to continue to communicate universally.

“So, here I come (with a growth spurt)…. Ready or not.”  

Stay tuned for further developments!

Susan

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Susan Blackwood
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