The Geekorium

Following on from post on my new “art” focus, I wanted to share a piece of art that I absolutely adore.

This isn’t my art, and as you may have surmised from the previous post, I don’t think of myself as an “art person”. I have previously told myself I am one of those people who don’t “get art”, and when I think about what that means I realise I mean “modern art”, but also “art you scroll past on a screen”.

Because our brains process art differently when it’s real and tangible in front of us, and I think we also see it differently when we’re bored or hungry or just want to hussle our kids through the gallery to the cafe¹.

So it shocked me one day when I was out with the family in Gumeracha at a little cafe and art studio called The Coach House, and found myself falling for a little peice of art on display there. It was acrylic on board of part of a tree branch covered with moss, with autumn leaves in the background. The leaves were large and out of focus - colour and shape mostly - while the branch was crisp and detailed and textured. The paint itself was thick and poked off the canvas like a living thing, like actual moss and bark.

I couldn’t explain then, and still cannot today, why it just worked for me. It gave me the sense of depth of a photograph because the background was abstract and blurry while the foreground was not just sharp but popping off the canvas and it just tickled my brain in a way art never has before.

Even though I wanted to buy it then and there, it was not cheap. If I saw it today I would have never been able to afford it. But after we left, it hung around in my head for weeks. I found myself wondering if I could buy art? Would I even enjoy it? Was I even remembering it right?

Eventually I couldn’t ignore the itch any longer and drove back to the studio to purchase the peice. I’m glad to this day that I did. It hangs on my wall where I work where it feels like a little window to a tree just outside.

It was a work called Lichening by an artist named Kerrie Drogemuller. I’ve included a photo here because I want to try and share it with you, but keep in mind that the texture is just as important and pictures genuinely don’t do it justice.

If I zoom in you can see how much the paint is layered to give it so much life at the macro level.

But even if I show you another angle, you still can’t appreciate the whole work from behind a screen.

This is my chance to say thank you to Kerrie. I believe she’s still making art, but the Coach House is closed now. I hope she keeps providing joy through her art.

And if you already “get” art, then I guess this post might seem quaint or naive to you. I don’t claim I know what I’m talking about, and I won’t say “I just know what I like”, but I will say that maybe there’s more to it than aesthetics, or technique. Maybe it takes an audience to feel it, even if they don’t understand it, and if you don’t - maybe you just haven’t really felt it yet.