Tentum in Mente, 2023

It was my intention that the title (Tantum in Mente-meaning all in the mind) reveals my intention regarding the art experience in this piece. In our day-to-day lives, it seems perfectly reasonable to identify a drawing or painting on the wall as "a piece of art." And in at least one sense, the statement is technically correct in that such an object contributes to the art experience in the same way that encountered vibrations from a falling tree in a forest contribute to the experience of sound. In no uncertain terms, what we understand as art is no more a property of an object than "red" is of a Liberty apple. This is not to say that our regular assignments of great value to art objects are absurd. It is quite the opposite, as these objects facilitate or elicit a valued art experience. In other words, they are part of a highly valued "pleasure technology." 

Examining the nature of art through this lens, we can temporarily view art objects as metaphorical pieces of software that initiate potent "neural programs." The perceived intrinsic properties (physical features) of the art object (software) combine with extrinsic properties (beliefs, biases, etc.) from an observer (hardware) to produce an experience that we describe as art. The potential combinations of these vital components are incredibly vast, with interactions occurring in many complex and fascinating ways. For example, we can encounter an art object that we may feel is lacking in certain typically attractive features, yet our beliefs about provenance, originality, or the artist's virtuosity might significantly elevate the experience to something we might describe as incredibly beautiful.

In the case of Tantum in Mente, the composition holds the background frame oriented in such a way that it appears to "emerge" or grow out from the open skull, encapsulating the idealized flower. This relationship or configuration is juxtaposed against related elements outside of the frame (artificial flower, natural flower remnants), promoting that there is indeed a significant separation between our experience of "art" and the intrinsic properties of the physical world we might associate with it. (A world that is not as "ideal" as our conceptualizations of it which is why elements of the Vanitas genre were so apt here.)