A Bit More Beauty

Gallery Night, when our Year 6 IB visual artists put their two years of work on display, is well established as one of the highlights of my year. This time round was no exception; in fact, it was on the biggest scale we've had so far, featuring, if I'm not mistaken, a grand total of 21 young artists. I went this evening expecting to be wowed, and wowed I was in surplus.

Since I now know I'm going to be knocked sideways by the quality of what I see, I've changed my viewing strategy. Previously I've glanced quickly at the various artists' statements that accompany the work, but I've tended to jump quickly to viewing the stuff based on its own merits, as it were. This time round I focused on getting a sense of what the artists' 'journeys' had meant to them and how I saw this reflected the work. I'm not saying this was transformatory, but I felt a greater sense than previously of what each piece might mean to its maker.

The funny thing is, though, that there's always a moment looking at the work, at least one piece and often many more than that, that you realise that what the artist has done has become greater than the personal concerns that fuelled the work. I suppose that's one of the characteristic signs of making something that's 'real' art: the moment when you look at your work and wonder, Now where the heck did that come from?