(Pic #1) Dawn in Westlake Village, outside Los Angeles (Photo by Josh Kaplan)

I’ve talked a lot about trusting ourselves to “see” something where no one else does.  My husband sometimes says that where he sees a scratched up truck tailgate, I see a piece of abstract art genius.

In real life, your perspective may not be as important as objective fact. For example, if it looks to you as if there is room for your car in a particular parking space, and there isn’t, your “perspective” won’t keep you from a nasty repair bill from the body shop. But in art, your perspective, or vision, is the ONLY thing that matters.  Josh went out shooting this morning, because it looked as if there might be a stunning sunrise.  He grabbed a shot of an early morning fisherman out on the little lake in our neighborhood.  (Pic #1) This is what was actually happening, what the camera celebrex saw, or what I might have seen if I had been there at the time (full disclosure, this was dawn, there was no way I would have been there at the time).

It’s a nice shot, guy on a manmade lake, unspectacular scenery around him. But when Josh took the picture, in his head he was thinking about the blessed isolation that this man was enjoying. No deeds to do, no promises to keep. This is simply what he saw in his mind’s-eye. (Pic #2)

(Pic #2) A purer view (Photo by Josh Kaplan)

There was no big photoshop magic here, just a little cropping and some exposure adjustment.  But suddenly it conveyed the feeling he had when he took it.

That’s what artists are supposed to do. That is their only responsibility. One of the purest joys that an artist can experience is the realization that his vision never ever needs to be explained, or justified.