Published on 12, July, 2020
Ok, there's a decent chance this one's just me, but I'm curious.
I don't get art. I understand making it as an outlet, and I can appreciate beauty. However when I look at a painting/sculpture etc, I don't 'feel' anything. Either it looks pretty or it doesn't, it's done with skill or it's not. This seems to span all genres/movements.
As this is a sort of perception thing, and to do with connecting emotionally, I wondered whether it may be ASD related. Does anyone else feel the same? Negative responses welcome as this is just a point of interest, I'm not looking for reassurance.
I have never been able to appreciate art aside from in a "that must have been hard to make" way. If I ever visit a gallery, my favourite paintings are those that most resemble a photograph as it's amazing that anyone could paint so realistically.
I prefer it when there's a description of what the painting is about and what it means. I once went to a gallery with a friend and was completely baffled by the emotions the paintings were evoking in her. I really didn't know what to say as "I feel nothing" would have been creepy!
Equally, I find poetry very hard to understand but it has occasionally moved me, connected with me, even without having the foggiest what it means. I think it's the rhythm and the beat.
Other than spike milligan as a child I've never been into poetry. However a few weeks ago on holiday I was moved to tears by a rendition of The King Of Rome - about a racing pigeon. This has lit a spark within me, and I've recently been indulging in John Cooper Clarke and Don Marquis. I actually found JCC was good at breaking me out of a cycle of ruminating and obsessive thoughts the other day. I think it was the rhythm of the beat. His poems don't move me as such but I find them clever and amusing.
I think I might go back to him as an adult and see what he's all about.
One thing I struggle a little with and I've learned to go with the flow, is that often in poetry things are implied rather than explicitly stated. I'm learning to just go with my instincts as I read.
Spike Milligan has written some poetry for adults which I find incredibly moving. He doesn't pull his punches when he writes about his experiences of acute mental illness, and he conveys them strikingly, yet without ever losing his sense of humour, in his prose too. He could be a biting satirist at times too, always poking fun at the inanity of so many of the arbitrary rules that we're expected to live by. He was a far more versatile writer than many people would give him credit for, IMHO.
And accent! I love his northerness, wit and directness.
John Cooper Clarke has such a wonderful voice