The way you see nature depends on whatever has influenced your way of seeing.
Georgia O'Keeffe
In an exhibition entitled, Dove/O'Keeffe: Circle of Influence currently on display at the Clark Art Gallery (MA), a parallel is drawn to show the influence and visual affinities that existed between two artists--Georgia O'Keeffe, who is celebrated as one of the most significant American visual artists of the 20th Century, and Arthur Dove, America's first abstract painter. O'Keeffe credits the work of Dove as her primary introduction to abstract art. She admired the bold, vibrant color and forms depicted in Dove's art and that admiration inspired O'Keeffe to make her own abstract drawings in charcoal and watercolor.
Just as reading across literary disciplines can better serve one's writing, so can being exposed to and experiencing other art forms. O'Keeffe is quoted as saying, "Art, life and consciousness are interconnected." With that in mind, perhaps the more you examine your own artistic influences--visual, literary or otherwise--the more enlightened you will be about your own work and its direction.
