Art helps us to navigate particular challenges in human existence, giving shape and form to our ephemeral and yet lived experiences.
Mikel Dufrenne (1973) submits that the work of art is grasped in the aesthetic experience. The artist is likely to be the first person to grasp the aesthetic experience of the work of art as they form and reform materials, allowing the work to take shape. As the artist touches the emerging form so they are touched by the work of art (Chrétien, 2004). The work of art is something that viewers and artists alike can do through their sensory attention to an object or constellation of events. In the act of seeing, the viewer confers a particular significance and meaning upon the work itself and thereby contributes to the development of the work itself. Making marks enables me to make sense of the ephemeral and unseen reality of what it means to be human. As I shape the work so I am shaped by what emerges.