The Power of Images

Images are a powerful thing whether it be creating them or looking at them.  Since I am not an artist, and don't feel the passion to create images I can't really talk about how that feels.  But as a collector I can talk about what it feels like to gather and gaze upon the image.  Since ancient times the image has held a special power over individuals.  It was thought that if you were to paint an image of a good hunting season that you would have one.  In biblical times the image was so powerful that sculpting was practically banned lest they become idolized.  You may think that is weird and that we are above that, but are we really?  We hang images up in our homes and why?  To beautify?  Well, sometimes...but I think that is just what we tell ourselves.  Think about when you were a young lad our lass.  Did you not adorn your bedroom walls with the sexiest models and celebrities?  I know that I did!  When you were young you didn't do it for beautification in the design and style sense.  You thought that so-and-so was a fox and wanted to feel that attraction every time you looked at the wall, or that blah-blah-blah was an amazing singer/sportsman and you wanted to honor them and feel their accomplishments each time you looked at the wall.  The point is you felt SOMETHING, and that something made you feel good, and that good feeling is one of our most primal feelings!  Now here is the magic part...

Let's say that you loved...ahem...Jonathan Taylor Thomas when you were 10 years old.  I, I mean you, would ritualistically tear pictures and posters out of TeenBeat magazine, arrange them on the floor, and then carefully adhere them to the wall of your bedroom.  Now, did I, I mean you, really think when I (oh well I guess the jig is up.  It was me) was 10 that the more pictures of Jonathan Taylor Thomas I had up on my walls the more likely I would be to meet him and become his dream girl...well now that I think about it, I did!  He would somehow feel my adolescent attraction and come racing to my door step.  How is that any different from early man painting a good hunting season in hopes that he would have one.  

Okay, as we grow up and our "decorating" tastes evolve we hang different things on the walls that still make us feel something.  But the images still hold the same "magical" power even if we don't know it.  There are a lot of art collectors out there who love Tuscan landscapes who have never been to Tuscany.  They go to Tuscany through the images they collect an hope (whilst staring at said images) that one day they will get to finally go there.  This collector might tell you that they simply think it is pretty!  Other's collect images as a form of nostalgic memorabilia.  Why do we look so lovingly into the past?  Do we think that the more we love what happened there the more we may be able to make it happen again?  Subconsciously we totally do!  So I ask you this...look at something you have on your wall and think about why you 'really' have it.  And does it pull out that oh-so-fantastic good feeling?

Last thing...have you ever not surrounded yourself with an image that made you feel good, or restricted your personal style out of fear.  I have, but that is another blog.  

~Liz