Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Letter
Insight and inspiration for your artistic career.

Dear Artist,

After my last letter, "Grabbing the heart" about people making their minds up in the blink of an eye, artists wrote to add their own take on "unusually satisfying pattern." Many also wanted to know some of the other visual triggers on my list. Here are four:

Precious colour
Gradations big and small
Something personal
Something mysterious

Precious colour is only precious when it's set off by neutral tones, mainly greys. Straight-from-the-tube garish colour doesn't always cut it--colour needs absence of colour nearby to be truly delicious.

Gradations provide an interactive dimensional flip that teases the brain. Blends play with the sensibility of ordinary things and twist the mind to see art rather than either reality or artless play.

Something personal has to do with an artist's unique style--the mannerist touch an artist gives his work. This trigger works for those who have prior knowledge of an artist's style. Naming and labelling is basic to human nature--instant labelling is highly satisfying.

Something mysterious activates our sense of illusion and magic. To tell all is the key to yawns. Illusory art excites. To enable this trigger, an artist needs to stifle the natural tendency to fully disclose and describe. People suspend judgment in the presence of mystery.

The emotional brain readily and positively reads these and other indicators as they briefly but tenderly touch neural pleasure-points. There are other stimuli that quickly ring the neural bells. For example, some folks need to see detail, drama, romance or sentimentality. At the same time, others close their minds to bravura, style, non-objectivity or even certain subject matter. In the arts, as in commodity selection, decision making is a perverse combination of clear emotion and intellectual filtration. Accessing the mind at an emotional level happens in a blink of an eye and is a key to a warm glow that motivates.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear." (Buffalo Springfield)

Esoterica: Regarding "Unusually satisfying pattern," this important trigger involves building a structure on which more mundane visual motifs play. No matter what the subject matter or lack thereof, curves, lost-and-found lines, checkerboards, lineups, offsets, counterpoints, gestalt-bleeds, spotisms, patches and activation make surfaces interesting to the emotional mind. Artists who understand this are better able to encourage viewers to linger. For some among us it's automatic and intuitive, for others it's something to learn.

If you would like to read more information related to the above letter please visit the Visual triggers clickback


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