The most powerful use of art is often overlooked.
Today, art as a consumable (movies, Instagram photos, video games) seems to be the primary focus of most businesses and the larger market/ population.
This is because we live in a consumer economy, artists and studios need a means to afford food, and we do that by selling art.
But often this focus on selling and presenting overshadows other uses of art:
Art may be used to:
- Learn more about the world
- about yourself
- to express yourself or ideas
- to educate
- to create culture
- And to convey and share emotion.
(Note, this was paraphrased from Demid Tishin)
Famous music producer Rick Rubin once said:
“The audience doesn’t know what they want; they only know what they’ve already seen.”
Creating purely to sell for consumptions sake leads to shallow work that rarely allows for new innovation or discovery.
That’s why the most powerful use of art is emotion.
Art — whether visual, poetic, or narrative — evokes emotion by framing experience. That’s its superpower.
Think back to your favorite movie, book, game, painting, or song. Why that one? You might say, “It’s just really cool,” but usually, what makes something truly stick is emotional weight — a connection between the art and your lived experience.
Art is subjective because emotion is subjective. We all bring our own histories to what we see, read, and hear. The most powerful art gives context to those emotions — sometimes even expressing what words alone can’t.
I think of The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I love it not just because King is a master storyteller, but because the lonely, desolate quest of Roland the Gunslinger mirrored something in me. I grew up as an only child in rural Washington, often exploring dark woods on my own.
My own lonely quests as a kid mimicked that of Roland’s, but the Dark Tower added a new twist on that lonely quest, evoking emotions of grandeur and awe in addition to feeling a relation to the story.
When an audience feels an emotional connection to a work of art, they are much more likely to be invested in that work. Consequently, the main focus in making art should be a focus on emotion.
I missed my opportunity to meet Kim Jung Gi by 11 days.
I had hoped to meet the master at Lightbox in 2022. He was the highlight of the event for me.
Gi passed October 3rd, 11 days before Lightbox.
I remember his booth was replaced with a large canvas that artists were encouraged to draw on in his remembrance, in the same style that he drew on canvases: just ink, no undersketch or reference.
To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I valued his art because he made art from a deeply personal space in a masterful way. He was a role model who knew how to make art that emotionally resonated:
How do we best evoke emotion with art?
- Draw from personal experience. The most powerful art often comes from personal experience. Kim Jung Gi talked at length about sketching what he saw in his mind. If he saw a cool looking building, he would note its appearance in his head. Tap into your experiences and memories — the senses, your own emotions and stories — and build from there. If it moved you, chances are it can move someone else.
- Transparency > Theatre
If we try to be something we are not, people can tell. The greatest emotional depth is rendered when we act with transparency. Share vulnerabilties, emotions.
Gi did this- he drew things that people didn’t like, but he drew them because he just liked to draw. - Embrace imperfection.
Gi famously drew with no guardrails, and made mistakes along the way. But those mistakes led to his mastery, and even became the basis for his art style.
Gi refused to lay out all his drawing plans instead requiring the audience and himself to fill in the blanks. This often leads to more emotional depth because audiences apply their own experiences and emotions onto the art.
If something is incomplete or imperfect, let it be. Chances are the imperfections and gaps will allow others to relate or fill in the blanks.
