Every time when I talk to my friend about my one day’s experience, “See” is the more frequent word that I use. I always like to say that I see something or I see someone.However, after reading “Deeply Seeing”, I begin to realize that most things I pass by every day cannot use “see” to express because I cannot remember them deeply. Just like the author says “ As we glance at life, we are often wrapped in a tangle of our own thoughts and judgement” (p 71).I believe that everyone has a isolated world which just belong to himself/herself. This world set boundaries with the world outside us and it has its own consciousness and thoughts. Most people like to judge something depends on this state of ego. If we want to see something deeply, we have to release ourselves from this state.
Seeing is very important to artist because it is related to their every aesthetic decision. About deeply seeing for artist, the author shares Saint Bonaventure’s three eyes of knowing and that is “ the eye of flesh sees the “outer” realm of material object; the eye of reason sees symbolically, drawing distinctions and making conceptual relationships; and the mystic eye of contemplation sees the luminous transcendental realms”(p 73). Therefore, when artist encounter a object which can inspire them to create, he firstly can distinguish this object from others and find its unique beauty. Then he will appreciate its formal pattern and content. After this, he “draws a boundary line around the form of the subject, separating it from the boundless backdrop of space and time” (p 74). Now I can understand why some arts of work are very sophisticated but appreciator believes that they have no values. The appreciator cannot feel the “soul” of their works because they don’t use “deeply seeing” to create.
As viewers, the real appreciation is that they must “ go through a real ego death by placing themselves in the inspired mind of the artists, who themselves are out of their minds and only acting as channels of creative spirit” (p 74).
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Thank you for sharing your perspective. We do “seeing” everyday, but it is difficult to say everyone has truly experienced the world “seen”. The three things introduced by Grey would be a good tool to “seeing” beauty in a proper way– integritas (wholeness), consonantia (harmony), and claritas (radiance). I appreciate the your saying that “I believe that everyone has a isolated world which just belong to himself/herself. This world set boundaries with the world outside us and it has its own consciousness and thoughts. Most people like to judge something depends on this state of ego. If we want to see something deeply, we have to release ourselves from this state” (Han, 2014), it is necessary for us to get rid of “ego” so that we would have the chance to “deeply seeing” to the work of art created. In other word, only we held our deep perspectives (get rid of ego) to the piece of art work, the diversity of meaning of art would not be limited. Besides, I think it is helpful for us to understand the art work based on personal experience, values, and then create our own spiritual practice.
I really liked that you connected your own daily experiences and “seeing”. I totally agree with your statement, “after reading “Deeply Seeing”, I begin to realize that most things I pass by every day cannot use “see” to express because I cannot remember them deeply.” (Han, 2014) In this week’s reading, the author quoted a statement “There is a vast difference between looking and seeing – a difference which is fundamental to the artist’s experience.” (Page 72) by Ernest W. Watson. In addition to this statement, the author also says “Seeing determines every aesthetic decision.” (Page 72) which tells us that the difference between looking and seeing is the aesthetic decision. Also I liked that you mentioned about getting rid of ego to create art. To deeply see something, artists definitely must get rid of ego.
I agree with your point that we should conduct our own understanding based on our own experience or personal values. Your idea reminds me of the mement when I was taking Chinese literature class in high school. The teacher wanted us to find the meanings or ideas the authors tried to convey through the articles. That was nonesense looking backward because how could the teacher know that every word the author write has meanings behind. What we should do with these good articles or art objects is to see them as a whole and give an overall understanding about it. The most important thing is how you look at it in your own perspective.
I really like your idea that “I believe that everyone has an isolated world which just belong to himself/herself. This world set boundaries with the world outside us and it has its own consciousness and thoughts. ” Just as we visit some galleries, sometimes it is hard to understand some of the artwork even after reading the annotations blow them if we do not “placing ourselves in the inspired mind of the artists” (Grey, 74).
I have a similar feeling of your opinion about “seeing”. A normal look is really simple but it affect nothing, but with a deeply seeing, we use our knowledge and experience to understand this object that we are observing. And this is when it becomes interesting because the objects shows its true value by people’s observing.