What is real art? The dawn of photography was the end of realism’s monopoly. For centuries, the techniques of photo-realism in illustration and painting were tools of preservation.
Despite photography, artists preserved their purpose. Contemporary art seeks to capture an emotion. There is a more complex analysis of a moment, place, person, or thing that is being sought after in art. Somewhere between Ad Reinhardt and Norman Rockwell is León Londoño, a student here at Montclair State University.
“This is what works for me, I’ve had to accept [that] I’m not gonna draw the way someone else is gonna draw…that impedes a lot of my progress,” Londoño said.
León had originally aspired to work in cybersecurity — a field he thought practical enough to avoid any scrutiny. That was, until a fateful moment in early education.
“[My teacher] was like, ‘Who wants to work in art?’ Everybody goes, ‘Yeah!’ Me, I go, ‘I [kind of] wanna go into biomechanical engineering,’” Londoño said.
This caused a divide for his teachers. It was one or the other: science or the arts. It elicited a stark reaction from a teacher, as Londoño remembers.
“The teacher [was] like ‘León, what are you doing here?’”
An artist finding their style is a journey no one can draw a map for. The growing pains are essential and unavoidable.
One moment stood out when he was inspired by an artist’s ability to synthesize art and the sciences. Her work illustrating for medical journals opened his eyes to the perfect solution. After all, “she loved biology, but she used art to elevate her career.”
The use of art to teach science opened a door for him, at least one in his mind. There wasn’t a fork in the road anymore. He realized he didn’t need to choose between practicality and expression. There is a proverbial wrestling match between the rigid practicality of STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — and liberal expression through the arts.
“I respect STEM, I like STEM… I don’t do art because I don’t like STEM,” Londoño clarified. “I do art because I like art.”
Artists seem to be on the back foot in that fight. There’s a conception that the arts are a “waste of time,” as though they’re less likely to make money, and that the expression is impractical.
Many artists resign themselves to this truth. This competitiveness limits the expression of artists.
When technical skills are more valued in a culture, the artists whose work falls into formlessness are deemed talentless. Londoño has found this zen in his relationship with art. His lines define the work, the lines flow naturally to the beat of jazz, improvising and overlapping to make one picture.
His art comes from a oneness that can’t be rocked by critique. It’s his and wholly his.
