Guillermo del Toro, director of Pan’s Labyrinth, artfully separates his film in two - the real world and mythical (under) world. With intentional cinematographic choices, the real world is painted a cool color palette of grey and blue with hard, angular lines articulating its formidable buildings. The mythical world is warm glowing pink, peach and gold with rounded edges and spirals contouring its womb-like architecture. The real world inspires a squirmy anxiety while the mythical world feels well, like a wondrous womb.
This is the power of an artist. Through artistic choices, we are able to lose ourselves in viscerally impactful moments. Intentional creative choices may inspire a bodily intelligence, enabling one’s perspective to expand, and at the best of times, recontextualize our role as humans in the broader narrative of our neighbors, nations, global community, world and universe. To quote Carl Sagan we live “on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam”.
A curator, then, is a narrator who creates context. One who understands that a particular artistic expression is but a chapter among many, having meaning only in its relation to everything that came before.
A dear friend once explained art is a place “where all variables are on the table, the definition is endless and truth has an opportunity to be debated.” The foundation to support and provide room for this intuitive, creative play must be strong. A curator must reign in the limitless possibilities in time, space, message and medium, to create an experience that is unique, emotional and inspiring.
This blog is about that process.
This is an ongoing process and there much, much more to learn.
So welcome to this journey. It’s nice to have some company.