Chapter 125 - Artistic Philosophy (1/2)
For the first time in his life, Kano was feeling dissatisfied with his work. Back in the village, whenever Kano drew something, painted something, or even modelled something out of clay, he never felt such a loathsome emotion every time he looked at it. But just yesterday, as he gazed at his wall-painting of Smaug being carted off towards the exhibition, he felt disgusted.
”What's the matter? Why the long face?” Mister Rasmus asked him from his side. Currently, the two were on a carriage ride towards the Artist's Guild within Radiant City for the exhibition.
Kano snapped out of his dismayed trance and exhaled loudly, ”D-D-Do we have to show my painting at the exhibition?”
In fact, Kano learned about the specifics of the exhibition just two days ago. He didn't know that his work was also going to be up for display! He thought that the purpose of coming to the city was to broaden his horizon by observing different artworks, and according to Mister Rasmus that was the original plan. However, through some rather annoying circumstances, Mister Rasmus was forced to push Kano into the spotlight and publicise his painting of Smaug, which Mister Rasmus had transported from his village.
”We have a slot. We kind of have to,” Mister Rasmus affirmed. ”Are you feeling apprehensive about it?”
Kano nodded lightly with a deep frown.
”And why is that?” Mister Rasmus urged again, with a faint smile on his face - Kano was too absorbed in his own troubles to notice it.
”I d-d-don't know... When I first painted Smaug, I was really excited. I liked it a lot. I felt that it was a good painting. B-B-But now... I guess I don't like it as much?” Kano said while scrunching his nose.
”What did I tell you about being descriptive with our words?” Mister Rasmus responded sternly.
”Well... Suddenly, I feel like my work isn't as good as I thought it would be. There are so many mistakes and shortcomings that I could have avoided. And it's so... basic!” Kano rattled off briskly.
Back in the village, Kano had stumbled along the path of visual arts purely by feel and intuition. He did what he ”felt” was right; he applied ”techniques” that worked through natural experimentation. Because of that, every new work he created was amazing in his eyes. But after travelling to Radiant City, learning about painting techniques with Mister Goran, and perusing the textbooks sent over by Teacher Larks, Kano realised that he was like the frog trapped in the well from the fables.
”It's only natural,” Mister Rasmus replied, causing Kano to jerk his head and face him in surprise. ”Just like everything, art is all about growth. No one is born perfect. Even those with innate talent need to put some effort to unearth it and polish it. Along the path to improvement they inevitably have to make mistakes. If people don't make mistakes they won't learn and improve. You hate your earlier work because it is filled with imperfections in your eyes. Don't fetter over the fact that you were a poor artist back then. Look at it from a different perspective: you only notice these imperfections because you are a better artist now!”
”But still... I feel like I could've done so m-m-much more with it,” Kano admitted with a pout. ”My interpretation is so superficial!”
The reason why Kano absorbed literature so avariciously, especially the fiction books provided by Teacher Larks, was because of how the authors used words to paint a picture in the reader's minds that could sometimes extend beyond the surface-level interpretation. More specifically, Kano was enthralled by the works of some authors who would use stylistic devices, diction, sentence structure, etc. with such skill that it threw him for a loop with each repeated reading. To an extent, Kano was envious of these authors because he knew that he lacked the capacity to craft thought-provoking proses using words.
BUT, thanks to the textbooks sent by Teacher Larks, Kano was given new hope. He realised that visual arts could also be used as a medium to evoke deeper thought. In fact, Kano felt that he was close to scratching the surface of this new avenue with his Smaug wall-painting, nonetheless, he had still fallen short by a decent margin. For one, he realised that his understanding of Smaug was too shallow. Smaug the dragon was much more than just a calamitous beast. He was the reckoning of the dwarves who had succumbed to their endless greed. This wasn't the first time the dwarves had perished through overindulgence in the sin of avarice. At a later date, the inhabitants of Moria too had been smothered by endless fire and darkness after mining too deeply. By using the skills Kano picked up from the books, he could have altered the perception of the character in his painting in an interesting way!
Mister Rasmus snapped his fingers and declared excitedly, ”Keep that thought in mind at all times! The words you have just spoken are the basis of your artistic pursuit, your philosophy. Every artist has a philosophy that guides their journey. To improve a technique, to develop a new technique, to explore ways to create certain kinds of moods, modelling specific creatures, are some examples of artistic philosophies. Of course, these philosophies are subject to change as the artists advance through the ranks and gain more insight into their craft.”
”I don't quite understand, Mister Rasmus,” Kano said with slightly furrowed brows.
”What do you want to achieve as an artist?”