I Need to Touch---- Feeling Art

This overcast morning makes me happy.  I have all my blinds open and I can look up to the sky and watch the morning birds flit around the trees and vines outside my apartment windows.  My eyes seem to be in the "resting" mode.  

Ann Arbor has just been through its week of Ann Arbor Art Fair.  I made sure I was here to see it for myself.  I've heard so much about it and wanted to see what was so "Amazing" about it.  I have to admit, I was amazed.  Especially the Original Section of the Show.  THere were 200 hand-picked artists showcased in the center of the U of M campus.  There were 3 other sections of art fairs, too, in the city of blocked-off streets.  An average of 500,000 people show for the fair.

Colorful People, Too

I like to use my creativity.  I crave it and feel an emptiness inside me, if I shut it down and don't use it, for very long.  I visited the Ann Arbor show four times during the week.  It filled up some empty spots in myself, I didn't even know existed.  It felt almost medicinal to let myself be exposed to such a variety of expression, color, texture, and surprises for my soul.

Young Girls Chalk-Creating in the Moment

Sometimes my surprise was the size or depth of a piece.  Sometimes it was the materials or color combinations I couldn't even imagine putting together myself.  I would stop and absorb the uniqueness.

I love wood.  It has the beauty of gracefulness, when done well, by an artist. I don't like it when it's shaved down and glossed over to a gravestone piece.  I like it natural, with the grooves and holes it acquires, from living its life.  I like the smell of wood.  More than the smell of finishes and oils.

I discovered something new about myself.  It wasn't the wood pieces I was distracted to.  I was continually drawn to the iron, copper, stone and glass creations.  I could run my fingers over them. Feel the smooth, rough and sharpness of the artist's work.  I need to touch art.  Even if I'm only able to touch the frame of a piece, I usually do, if I'm attracted enough to walk up to the piece.

My favorite artist was the one (don't know the name or booth) who had roughly-cut pieces of glass, mixed with metal and water.  The sun would either come through the glass or reflect off the metal and water.  Both metal and glass had their smooth parts and sharp edges.  In one sculpture piece, the artist  had a metal bowl with shards of glass sitting in it.  It allowed me to put my hand through the pieces of glass and touch the metal below.  (the artist wasn't nearby, so I'm not sure if my behavior would have been approved of, or not)  Some of the art pieces were seven feet tall.  I can still picture them in my mind.  That's art.  An experience, a coming together of the artist and audience, sharing the comfortable and uncomfortable.  I didn't take a picture with my camera.  It wouldn't come close to capturing the beauty.

Artists of Sound Were Everywhere 

The artist controls the materials, shapes, colors and I walk up and experience the art.  I feel and see with my stain-glassed eyes.  Art.  As the audience, I choose whether I want to be shocked, soothed, stimulated or calmed by the work.

Water was Important in the Heat

I think it's much like life.  We have choices.  We're drawn to experiences, but we never know what the outcome will be.  We have to walk up to life and touch it, slide our fingers over the rough and smooth edges.  Feel and be surprised by what we experience.  And walk away with a picture, a memory of our experience.  Whether it's comfortable or uncomfortable.  It is life.

Jenna and Susan-Touching and Choosing