YOU, ME, and the MIDDLE MAN

When artists create artworks they have a purpose in the details that they are creating. Bal and Bryson states that art is composed of signs that the artist has formed to be interpreted by art historians. They also state that there are 3 factors important to art historians when they do their work which include the sender, the context, and the receiver. The sender is the author (painter, sculptor, photographer, etc.), the context is the text that has signs in it which need to be interpreted, and the receiver is the audience such as the art historian. There is an important relationship between the three. Winston also agrees to these similar relationships. He states, "There is a constant exchange of emotion between us, between the three of us; the artist I need never meet, the painting in its own right, and me, the one who loves it and can no longer live independent of it." There is a connection between these 3 similar elements which communicate together to develop meaning of the art work viewed.


The author has commented on this piece and says that the theme of the series of photographs that this picture is part of is "mankind's complicated and vast relationship with nature." This is the view of the artist/sender. When I, the receiver, look at this photograph, the context, "Decorating Nature," I sense from the artist a creative and aesthetic style to show how humans have interacted with nature in order to make it how they want it to be.  I interpreted the unnatural contrast from the bright blue paint on the plant as signs of humans invading the normal scheme of the plant and the transformations humans impose on the plant part of our own free will. We use do whatever we think is right in our minds to nature such as to enhance it, to make money off of it, or to make it look more appealing but that should not be the case. We should not alter plants. This simply does not work. By interpreting this art work I have shown how the 3 factors work.