No.12 Glints on the Terrain

In which the Alt text descriptions of my artworks lean toward an expressive approach

The curtain has closed on dour, dear February. The sense of hibernation or a soulful isolation begins to dissipate with the sudden sprouting of daffodils; birds have begun to resume their chatty, shrieking antics in the yard as if there had been no intervening time of darkness or cold stillness.

Today, I’ve been adding some recent works to my website. Writing the Alt text descriptions of things can be a challenge— a default urge to be textbook or literal about describing the works happily always gives way to a more poetic approach as I search for words that feel appropriate.

Ink wash painting of a barren landscape— just a few scrubby trees, rendered in black ink and wash. Beneath the surface, the land falls away in long watery drips and wisps of root stock. Glints on the terrain give an impression of recent rains.

Nighttime landscape of malnourished pine trees rendered in black ink and wash; Stars dot the deepening sky, and the land below the surface falls away in the shape of a water-stain, sprawling to overtake as much of the paper’s surface as it can reach

These descriptions make the ink sound greedy and enterprising, or perhaps reckless and ravenous. In action, it can be all of those and more— its drive augmented by the natural inquisitiveness of water. Perhaps this is why I’m drawn to it so much more than acrylics or oils, which are generally better behaved; more likely to stay where you’ve set them down, demure and docile in their natural states.

I penned a third description for the inclusion here of the two paintings side by side as one image—

Two watery black ink paintings showing landscapes of scrubby trees and surface textures of grass and long roots dripping downward. One landscape is daytime; gas-white sky of dense cloud cover; the other is evening, and stars pierce the deepening dusk.

Once upon a time, descriptions of my work seemed a chore— whether for the visible text accompanying the images on a site, or in the hidden world of Alt tags for page reading software. But the past few years I’ve taken it as a creative project in the shape of: Can I evoke some of the same mood with the words that I managed with the ink, if only in brief? Taking this approach almost requires creating the artwork a second time, in words: an enticing challenge.

What do you think? That is, if you were to describe a landscape or room that you were in to someone unable to see it, would you be more inclined to give an expressive, emotional description, or describe what you were seeing in literal, factual terms?

While each has its place, in the case of art I think the former approach is the only way. Art is not a practical undertaking, in the making or in the viewing or experiencing of it.

Thanks for being here and reading this. Feel free to let me know your thoughts, on this or on whatever.

I hope the new month finds you well,

~Liz