by Michael Pointer

Created on: June 09, 2009   Last Updated: June 12, 2009

When I was teaching at Wichita State University in the School of Art and Design, my students were frequently perplexed about what to use as a subject, even when the parameters of the assignment were well defined. My favorite assignment to give was to assign them to go out and photograph the things they would never photograph, draw, or paint, to go find your taboos. For some reason this inevitably produced a few pictures of themselves naked. The 18 to 21 year-old mind is very interesting, but that's a different story.

We all know right from wrong. Bundled up in that is a very rich knowledge of what we we would never do under any circumstances. Hand a person a piece of paper and tell them to write down their bad traits and they will quickly fill up the page. Tell them to write what is good and wonderful about themselves and you could be there all day.

My students rarely seemed to have a good idea of what they liked. I could reel off a long list of subjects which would each instantly be rejected by the student. I would ask, "Well what do you enjoy the most?"

they would look confused for a moment and utter those undergraduate words of wisdom, "I don't know."

Taboos are well known to all. They are societal, cultural, and personal. We spend a lot of time learning all of these taboos as we mature. It's no wonder we all know a great deal about what's wrong with us and not much about what is right within us. Within that negative information lies a wealth of ideas. For instance, you're out driving through the countryside and see several different scenes you would like to paint. You stop and make photographs of each one for reference.

Now you're back in your studio and looking through your photos. Which one do you paint? You like that old house but the tree line is wrong and you don't like the general modern clutter of junk surrounding it. Why not? Now is the time to consider your taboos. Is it all of the junk? What pieces of junk accentuate the beauty of the old house? What would happen if you only painted the clutter and left the house out? There are stories in that clutter.

Try thinking of the image elements as textures; visual satisfaction is strengthened when smooth is placed against rough. Compositional tension is heightened when different textures are played off each other. Most importantly, we learn more about what visually excites us. Whenever we look at a scene, we are influenced by all the elements we are seeing, whether we like them or not. Exploring taboos allows an artist to make a more cogent image because then he/she knows precisely what to emphasize to show the viewer what inspired them.

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