Answer:
Imagination, as an artist uses it, is not a free-thinking endeavor, where there are no boundaries or no limits. It is a state of mind in which the artist works, but first there should be a subject or idea inspired by the world around him or her.
Imagine this. You are an experienced rock climber and before you is a wall of rock going straight up, very high. The rock wall is full of cracks, fissures, and ledges. You want to climb the face of this rock wall to the top. As an experienced rock climber you know not to just start climbing, but you stand back to inspect the wall, looking for the best way to approach your climbing route.
So, the subject is the wall of rock. The idea is to climb to the top. The boundaries and limits are the cracks, fissures and ledges. Looking for the best route is your state of mind, your imagination. After that, is when when you begin to climb.
Using the imagination in art requires discipline and parameters. Because without boundaries, without a subject or idea, the result is meaningless. Why do artists create? Who do they create art for? If the premise is to create something others will view, there must be a connection between the viewer and the art (the idea as expressed by the artist). Many people who call themselves artists, produce stuff that the viewers don’t understand. The experience of viewing is chaotic and the viewer moves on, the artwork forgotten.
If you have the good fortune to live near an art museum that has a collection of great art, classic or contemporary, go there and spend an afternoon. You’ll see many fine examples of artists using their imagination. You’ll connect, in some way, with how the artists had imagined their ideas to be understood.
Picasso’s Guernica was painted as a reaction to the Nazi’s catastrophic bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Now there’s some imagination at work!
Explanation:
