i need your opinion

I know what you’re thinking: why do I not know anything about art? I mean, I know something. I know Andy Warhol is the king of pop art. And Keith Haring + Roy Lichtenstein have also contributed to the massive art world in a way that can only characterize them as gods. But when I’m looking at a print, or original, I either give up guessing how it was put together, smile and nod, or see it as only a bunch of colors trying to challenge society. Because it only makes sense the second you analyze it. Or allow someone else to force feed you their opinion.

Hmm. That sounds vaguely familiar to what we do every day of our lives. We walk around the world figuring things out, go to school, where people teach us stuff already figured out. We have become numb to it after a while, but we still technically do it.

Remember when you visited another country, or hell even another state, for the first time? You walked inside a store and found similar products with different designs on them. Well you had to take an extra second to get your head around the uncanniness of it, and then decide whether you wanted it or not. That mind hit is what you encounter each time you look at an artwork. Pop Art is a parody of life. It twists something familiar and throws up absurdity. Whatever you think, you’re right. You might not know the technical instruments that went into making that artwork, but you can judge it because you live on this Earth. And someone else with different experiences made it for you to judge.

So next time you end up in an art gallery, speak up. You never know when you’ll give someone else another perspective, and possibly the motivation to come up with their own. Don’t let so-called experts make up your mind.

By Dmitry Pomirchy (AKA Damon Stone), Hamilton-Selway Fine Art