Closer and Closer

color etching

“In this print I was trying to make visual the deep idea that I have learned from Aesthetic Realism—that the self of a person has two aspects, one narrow, wanting to like only itself, and the other wanting to be fair to all that is outside itself, and that the aesthetic job of our lives is to see these two aspects of ourselves as one.

“As I drew these two figures—I saw them as representing the two sides of myself—I felt that as one side looked at the other, the two grew closer. That is why I wrote those words on the print. I put the two facing figures in a reddish-brown, earthy and glossy colored rectangle to have them seen as surrounded by the world.

“I learned more about myself and what I was hoping for, and my intention in this print, from what Chair of Education Ellen Reiss said in an Aesthetic Realism class, as she looked at a reproduction of a drawing from this series. I was enormously moved and grateful as Ms. Reiss said:

The fact that the line between the two figures seems to glow is beautiful and important. People have felt that what is between their two selves is an eternal blockage. Here there is both impediment and hope as the two parts confront each other. The division in self is also the opportunity in self. “

—CK

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