"Equivalence" by Minor White

It took me a while to get into this reading. It didn't really grab my attention, though I am kind of spacey to begin with. The one point that was able to hold my attention was how the audience view on art can be quit different from what the artist sees in their own art. This concept really got me thinking about how my own art is received by others. The reading mentioned how everyone views a piece of art differently because everyone has had different experiences in their lives, and therefore can make certain connections to art that others may not be able to make. Basically this idea got me thinking that no art is really 100% successful. As in the artist can see their work as exactly what they want it to be, but to others the point or message of the art work might not even reach them at all. They might see something completely different from what everyone else is seeing. So no piece of art is ever going to reach everyone in the same way or even mean something to everyone. I think all that matters is that your own art means something to you and if no one else gets it, then that's fine. So technically it's 100% successful to you and only you.
One photograph that shows this concept is the following photo by Tierney Gearon. In this photograph, it shows an older woman looking into her shoe, while a baby lays on the grass, unattended in the sun. To me, this photograph makes me think of an irresponsible mother who is leaving her baby in the sun. It strikes me on a emotional level as well, making me feel sad for the baby. However to the artist, she feels something completely different. In a documentary about Tierney, she talks about this photo specifically and describes how she sees this image as a reflection of her childhood. That she feels that she was the baby being left in the sun. While she was talking about this photo she even broke down in tears because it made her so upset to think about. This photo means something entirely different to the photographer than it does to me, the viewer, simply because we have had different life experiences.