The Interpretive Side Of Non-Interpretive Art: What is this painting all about? You might say it’s a disentanglement by me from my usual style, that I call Receptive Abstract Patternernism. There is an obvious interpretive element in this work. The three trees are floating on an island in a sea of blue with a thousand whitecaps. The earth-brown shape that corrals the ocean is dotted with green nonrepresentational foliage. Not too terribly complicated when you take the time to view the work. But it could be more interesting if there was a story to go with it.

The Trees of Nature: It came to be a mystery to man and creatures alike how this tall plant, which can live for a very long time, sprouted from the earth. Even more magical to the imagination is how some of these trees can bare delicious edible fruit. All this happens from a seed that evolved on the earth over time. Who or what brought those seeds into being? I suggest it was an artist. The artist was a woman. All life comes to life… in this case, by a woman, we proudly referred to as Mother Nature. She and she alone is responsible for the trees we artists try so desperately to paint, both interpretively and non-interpretively. Do we succeed? Some do greater than others.

My trees, the ones I painted not so eloquently in this painting, are neither great nor small. They just enjoy just being. They have brought me joy, and on occasion, they manage to visually tease the minds of others. What do you see in this triad of trees? I admit interpretations are many and perhaps not really deserving of silver-tongued flattery. But then again, it is, The Interpretive Side of Non-Interpretive Art.

“When I was 10 years old, I climbed a tree that was three times my age in height, and what did I see from my perch? My world was larger than my imagination.” 

 

Rod Jones Artist-Writer