What is Imagery?
To me, imagery is simply something that looks beautiful. In my mind, imagery should primarily designed to be eye-catching and aesthetic, because when people see an advertisement or architectural plans, or a new fashion design for the first time, if it doesn’t look pretty, then people will instantly be turned off by the image without getting a chance to explore its deeper meaning. Granted, beauty is a subjective term, and something that looks pretty to some might be ugly to others, so I think that the image should be designed to be aesthetic to the designer’s personal tastes. That way, the designer of the image is proud of their work, instead of conforming to social norms of what might be beautiful or not.
Not all imagery has to be eye-catching for it to succeed as an image. For example, a realistic painting of a flower placed amongst other flowers may blend in and be almost non differentiable from its surroundings, but that is because it is so beautifully made, and so expertly crafted. In that sense, the artist has succeeded in making the image that he originally intended, and thus, something that doesn’t stand out at all becomes a work of art. What the artist may originally intend for a piece and how the audience interprets the piece are what define a successful image in my mind. If the image fails to convey its meaning, then the audience member does not understand the image, and if it is unattractive aesthetically on top of that, then the artist has failed to connect with that audience member. The exception to this rule is with art pieces that are designed merely to look beautiful and attractive, without any intended deeper meaning. Then an audience member can project themselves onto the art piece, and the artist can still bask in the glory of their accomplishment.
Some people would argue that a piece without meaning is not art; however, the entire foundation of my beliefs about imagery is that it should be something beautiful, otherwise I would never want to look at it and understand its deeper meaning. And if there is no deeper meaning, then I would not glance at the piece at all if I found it to be ugly. So for me, art, and imagery are an aesthetic image, painting, photo, advertisement, any sort of expression that I would love to admire more.
Planning for my Website
What Would be in my Gallery?
Personally, I love surrealistic art. There is something incredibly appealing in having an unnatural object in an otherwise ordinary setting, or vice-versa. Surrealism provides a way to distort reality and create something beautiful that we would never be able to see if we simply went outside with a camera. Because of my love of surrealism, I am particularly attracted to artists like Salvador Dali and René Magritte. These artists figuratively and literally bent reality to create unique paintings that felt oddly familiar even though they were so distorted. Modern day artists like Sandy Skoglund and Rewinda Omar would also be featured in my gallery because their modern take on surrealism uses bright saturated colors and neon effects that aren’t present in old artists’ work. My art gallery would be focused around surrealism, with an emphasis on contrasting colors and unique settings to make an experience that would distort my view of the world we know and live in.
