WindowWood

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"The meaning of the work is not embedded in the object, but in the relationship between object and collector." - Gary Alan Fine: Everyday Genius: Self-Taught Art and the Culture of Authenticity (The University of Chicago Press: 2004) P.6

What do you see in the image I've posted tonight? Have you noticed that this hundreds of years old window is just slightly off-square? That the artisans worked the wood to mate perfectly with the Pennsylvania field stone? Masons and carpenters choreographed this dance which is as perfect right now as it was then. I'm trying to comment on permanence and how humans have withstood nature for a while. Today we need whirling machines to maintain our comfort. Then a fit between window and stone ... that was the HVAC of their time. In a couple of decades our machines are rusting hulks mounded in dumps. In a couple of centuries ... their stones still dance intimately with their lumber.

Professor Fine isn't convinced that my interpretation of my image has much meaning to you. In fact, it's not my interpretation which matters at all. Nope, it's yours. As a collector of images (whether on your walls or in your mind), their significance is only what you understand it to be. I can launch tonight's graphic filled with enthusiam about romantic ideas of permanence. But I am only the launcher... the image is the launched... and you? You, I suppose, are the launchee.

Gary Alen Fine believes that the artist's intent is irrelevant to its meaning. Hmmmmmm......