irons

"I was intent on making something that didn't tell people what to do." -John Cage

This painting walked into my studio at school and seemed interested in something I was working on. I asked him the other day a yes-or-no question about the composition of the piece I was working on. He looked sort of confused and went off about options of meaning in the piece; what each compositional decision would mean. 

I relate to things. I don't pick them apart. How can there possibly be an observed meaning in everything? How can you look at a piece of art and not just look at it for at least a few seconds before you stop feeling and begin thinking. Does everyone else look at art and immediately file them under as a kind of art historical reference? 

I spend a lot of time looking at things and appreciating them. Sometimes it's comforting to know what they mean and how they work but i associate them more with how it looks and what it's made of and how many people were involved. What was involved? How many steps were there? 

What it means is an opinion. I can come up with my own. It's nice to find out what the intention was, but it's not my main concern. 

I look at an iron and I don't wonder how it works. I think about the one person who put the small parts on it and continued to do this over and over in the same spot with many other people in their spots and what's it like to go home and how does it feel after your hands do that all day with your feet on holding you up all day and what does their house look like and do they have to wear a hair net and who else lives in their house, do they have a cat, how do they feel about putting parts on irons that get sent to many places so people can make fabric smooth and do they ever use an iron?   

That's what I'd rather know.