In this blog we will be exploring the ideas presented in the quote presented above. We hope to show how interpretation has the tendency to lessen art and to force the reader/viewer to contemplate the implications of this. Why do we interpret? What is the point of interpretation? how do we change the artist's intentions to fit our own wants? How do form and content interact with one another when interpretating art? What is lost when art is reduced to only its content and its interpretation? Does the artist's intentions have any bearing on our interpretations? Do multiple interpretations of the same work mean art it is unmanageable? Is interpretation necessary to enjoy art?

By posing these questions we hope to cause the reader/viewer to question their motivations for interpretation and to help them to view art in its purest form.

Artist Gary Setzer Shares Theories of Art

Gary Setzer is a local artist who is an Assistant Art Professor at the University of Arizona. He kindly gave his time to sit down with us to answer some questions about interpretation, art, and the successes he has had in teaching this complicated subject.

We would highly suggest the readers of this blog to look up information about Gary Setzer. Due to copyright issues, we are not able to put his work directly onto this website. But Setzer displayed his show entitled Gary Setzer: Homonymous Confusion of Planes, 2007 last autumn at the University of Arizona museum. The artist is on YouTube under this title, discussing this performance art, and everything this artist has to say in this video is worth listening to. He is currently in London showing his artwork.

In your years of teaching, how do you think the majority of your students feel about interpretation?
-I teach mostly freshmen, and they tend to view art as subjective. They seem to embrace the idea of interpretation and the idea of leaving it open. Though, going through art school makes the artist more specific with content. They will limit interpretation to a degree, I mean the further along they are as an artist the better they will be at conveying the point.

What, if anything, do you intend when you make your art?
-Actually, a lot of my work deals with interpretation. I suppose my main themes have dealt with Semiotics, Phenomenology, and Hermeneutics.

How do you feel about interpretation (both in general and of your own work)?
-Well, it's something I can't really control, especially as a younger artists, I would embrace and enjoy it. There is an art for everyone. Whether it is the Mona Lisa or something less traditional, people will come to it and put their own experience on it. History can change the way we see art, but there is no right way. I think there is art that is made just for artists, and there is art made for the public.

If someone interpreted your work the wrong way, how would you feel?
-If can inform me of something that I was not conscious of before. It would make me rethink the way I'm trying to convey my art, but I wouldn't take it personally.

When you give an Abstract Art assignment to your class, what do you expect from your students? What if they gave you the assignment for the grade, and you could not see their intention? How does the grading work with this?
-I expect my students to take risks. Each project is graded with a rubric, so the students should be attempting to manage those specific point. I can't grade to my taste; there have been some pieces that I personally did not like very much but still received an A, while there have been some pieces which I like a lot but received a D. I grade on overall affect given the success the artist had conveying their intention.

Do you think interpretation has a negative or a positive affect on art?
-It can do both. I like analysis, and I don't like analysis. I don't like when certain trends bend towards a "yes" or a "no." Art is more organic than that.

When does art become less personal and more commercial?
-I think that's a blurry line today. Art in galleries is somewhat a part of the commercial world. And art on TV is all commercial. Any walk of art will have a commercial value on it, and I don't see anything totally evil about it.

What is art?
-I still don't have an answer for that, and I never will. Art is a continuous investigation . Once we define it, art will try to escape that definition.

Miscellaneous Conversation with Gary Setzer:
-The lower level arrt classes are more steeped and grounded; it is art in the making and the context for the making. In lower levels we teach skill points that are necessary for a career. Not because that's what "good" art is, we just try to give a good vocabulary. The learning of art is a creative challenge, kind of like an obstacle course (though a little less "military"). A lot of the schooling is showing the students the standard, which they can work past in their careers, or they may not.

We also got the chance to talk with some of Setzer's lower-level students (this is presented later in the website). Through this conversation we can see that interpretation plays a huge part in art, especially for the artist. If you thought there was a great deal to be considered when merely viewing a work of art, imagine being the person who created it. An idea is born, and the true artist is able to put that idea into some sort of visual presentation. But what happens to the artist when that idea is misinterpreted, and we are left with a refreshing idea: that which Sontag would call art that has been "left alone...and untamed."

University of Arizona Artists Reveal Art and Ideas

We sat in on one of Gary Setzer's art classes to talk with true University of Arizona student artists to really get the scoop on the other side of viewing art work.

One artist who we were particularly moved by was Lauren Pascuzzo, who made the following abstract artwork:


Lauren used the people from her dance class as the main inspiration from this piece. She asked them what their favorite type of dance was, and which colors they associate with that dance. She then chose items that best represent each type of dance, took up-close pictures of the items, and made them unrecognizable by editing them on the computer. After doing this she created twelve shapes that flowed together to make an interesting composition. Finally she painted the distorted picture along with the color(s) that the dancers gave her to each of the twelve shapes.
*This information was paraphrased from Pascuzzo's own Content Summary (2008) about the artwork

1. What, if anything, do you intend when you make your art?

"I want the art to be interpreted in the way I see it. I wanted to convey the feeling of movement, without them really knowing what they were seeing." -Lauren Pascuzzo

Lluvia Creek is another University of Arizona artist who was willing to share her artwork with us:


Lluvia used two different groups of employees as inspiration to create this artwork. She wanted to convey how each person felt at the end of the day, and she did this by using ink blots and a series of questions and either-or choices:
1. Choose a number between 5 and 10.
-This would determine how many ink drops she would use to create their ink blot
2. What is your favorite color?
3. What is your favorite number?
-Both of these questions would help the artist pick out a color and manipulate the color for their ink blot.
4. Choose either right or left (this has nothing to do with the hand you write with)
-This would determine which way the artist would travel on the color wheel, which was the opposite of the direction they chose. If the subject chose left and they said their favorite number was 6, she would travel 6 color slots to the right, and that would be the color of their ink blot.
5. Tell me what you see in your ink blot in relation to how you feel right now.
-With this question the artist would allow the subjects to see their ink blots for ten seconds, and describe how they were feeling with only one word.
The artist compiled all of the subjects' information by blowing them up and cropping sections to create the layout of the painting. The artist enjoyed making this piece because she learned how, at times, the painting itself would tell her what to do next.
*This information was paraphrased from Creek's own Content Summary (2008) about the artwork

"Art grows from feelings, whether it’s happy or sad or whatever, I think people will see that in art. If I can convey how I’m feeling it’s perfect art." -Lluvia Creek

The interesting connection with forming art by using ink blots. In doing this, the artist has found a new way to draw inspiration and enlightenment from ink blots. The blog about Interpretation discusses the science of Ink Blots, and how this is a form of backwards interpretation, it is art determining the person, not the other way around. Lluvia Creek has found a way to harness Ink Blots in a way, and make them into something beautiful.

Jeff Cole is another University of Arizona artist who was willing to share his artwork with us:

Jeff focused on the elements of music for this painting. The artist asked ten friends about this topic, asking questions like what they first paid attention to when they listen to a song and which part of a song is their favorite or the most important. Their answers would range from bass, drum pattern, lyrical flow, and beat pattern. After talking with them, the artist would asked his subjects to draw what they thought the element they chose would look like it if was rendered on a piece of paper. The artist then compiled all of these figures onto his painting. He chose these colors to show an energy and intensity in the artwork against a black background. The artist commented that he wanted to marks to be so abstract that the viewer would not be able to tell the artwork was about the elements of music. *This was paraphrased from Jeff Cole's own Content Summary (2008) about this artwork.

1. What if we were to just take art as it is? Do you think this would improve or dampen the “experience of art”?

I think that it’s like that already. Anyone can put out artwork, and that’s positive. One can never know the artist’s influences, we can see that the ideas are endless.
Art is an endless word; it will go on forever, it will change and evolve. -Jeff Cole

By reviewing the artists' own words about their artwork, one can see what artwork is like before the act of interpretation is placed on the artwork. This art has not been "tamed" or made to fit the viewers' needs and wants. What we have here is pure, unadulterated art with the true artists' points of view. There is no need to interpret this art to make the viewer feel more comfortable-for the viewer has everything they need to know already.

Kahlo's Inspiration

An artist that most of us should be familiar with is Frida Kahlo; her art has become world renowned. The story of Kahlo's life and her unique style within her works has been an inspiration for artist's around the globe and a source of interest to art aficionados everywhere. What makes her paintings even more interesting is how they resist interpretation across many levels. In spite of the charged imagery throughout most of her paintings coupled with intense visuals which could send the imagination spiraling, it is nonetheless difficult to pull apart her paintings in order to find a meaning that is readily available to all. Due to the tragedy and pain of her life that she continually expressed throughout her work as well as her own explanations of her works, it is slightly obvious as to what her works mean. She left no room for estranged meaning. Her art can only be understood within the context of her life and legacy. When one makes the effort to find the source of her work and the misfortune that she suffered her works make sense. This demonstrates that in many cases it is possible that art is composed of only a very specific, certain meaning. This meaning is completely dependent upon the artist. When the meaning is dependent upon the artist than it becomes futile to attempt to interpret anything at all.