Joshua Watt’s Between the Lines

By Hamda AlHashemi (@Hamda_Alhashemi)

“Just as light going through a prism becomes an entire spectrum, the ideas, contexts, and motivations embedded within our daily lives are always more than what they appear on the surface.” That was part of Joshua Watts’s artist statement regarding his latest exhibition, “Between the Lines”. Perception is a beautiful word, it goes beyond what every other human eye sees and instead focuses on what you see from your experience and state of mind.

Watts used a magnificent metaphor to imply an essential idea in our daily lives. Just like the way light passes through a prism, is a word misunderstood or a situation analyzed in the wrong way. Even though the light source comes from the same source, it divides into different colors when it passes through the prism. Likewise, a word is a word meant in a certain way but when it passes through the ears of the listeners, they each understand it in their own way.

In Joshua’s latest artwork, one sees a regular object or a simple photograph, surrounded by other elements. Each element plays its part in conveying a meaning in that photograph or object or maybe even changing its meaning entirely. This is how life is; we judge and act upon what we see in front of us. But in reality, every person and every action has been exposed to certain elements just like the photographs in Watts’s artwork.

“The form is not simply a reflection of the concept, but an embodiment of it,” (Watts, 2011). Looking at Watts’s work, not only did I enjoy the aesthetical beauty of the visuals, but also I was able to feel something by looking at the different techniques used to influence the focal point. With every stitch he made, stroke of color he added, he reflected a story from life.

We are but a bundle of flesh and blood shaped by moments of happiness, drops of tears, the sound of laughter, and shared emotions. Exhaling what life offers us is not something we can exhale without undergoing change.

While looking at Watts’s work I remembered a girl I met in my first year of college. She was so quiet and she never smiled or expressed any emotion or opinion other than indifference. After a while, I found out that that girl had undergone horrible catastrophes like the death of her family in an accident that she survived.

In the end, everything is connected. Watts’s art piece “Everyday Rituals” demonstrates that perfectly. His art piece was like his diary; he documented his daily mood or thoughts through adding a color that translates his feeling. When I looked at the final piece it seemed like everyday leaks into the other day’s color. And that is how life is; yesterday is part of today and today will play a role in what we do tomorrow.

“Like combining many different dialects into a single language, the unique ideas presented by each element interact and coalesce within the picture plane, forming a cohesive whole,” (Watts, 2011). Everything is the product of something else. Sometimes we eat a delicious meal and then discover than we do not like all the ingredients. So even if we go through a rough situation, it will eventually make us stronger and lead us to a better life. Embrace what life offers; the more we experience, the more colorful our lives will be.

June 2011’s issue:

Here We Start – Community Talk – Food for Thought – Just Another Undergrad
Living Through The Eyes of Art – Microscopic Me – Scenes From Life
Society of Tomorrow – To The Point – Words, Observations, and Ramblings