The Importance of Fan Art: Interpretation

The creation of art has two faces: creation and interpretation. The magic of fan art
is that it wears both masks. The Potter fan artist is both creating new art and interpreting the
literary art of Jo Rowling. Of course, this interpretive art has a long history–even
the classical artists derived their inspiration from another medium–an oral tradition of fable
perhaps, or the admired work of a mentor. Some fan art takes this interpretation a step further yet, by adding layers of interpretation (much as Rowling has done in the Potterverse.) These amazing artists have interpreted their Potter-art in the style of another artist, with fantastic results!

An example is TLC Featured FanArtist Sanna L (aka Kiwibird). She has drawn Harry in the style of Leonardo da Vinci — even to producing a faux-parchment background. What this does, for me, is pique my interest both in her art, and the art that has come before (the Leonardo.) Just as Jo Rowling‘s extensive use of classic myth and fable helped spark the interest of a new generation of readers who might otherwise see such things as “old and boring”, so the contemporary HP fan artist nudges the viewer to explore further than they might otherwise have done. To find the contemporary in the past, and vice versa.

Another of our Featured FanArtists, lillywmw has taken a 20th century masterpiece, “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt and made a wonderful NEW piece of outstanding art based on it, even down to the use of gold leaf — lillywmw’s “The Secret Marriage”. Here again, an additional layer of interpretation is added in the choice of “models” for her lovers. By using the actors from the HP films, lillywmw reaches out to yet another part of the Potter fandom with her art.

So, what is the significance of this? As the title of my blog states “art is essence”, the distillation of so many details of light and shadow, colour and tone, character and emotion, into a drop of pure life-essence. We see mirrored in that drop both the best and the worst of ourselves. By seeing we can hope to understand. It is my firm belief that visual art, like the written word so much of it is based on, helps us to better understanding of both ourselves, and the world around us. The present, and the past, and the possible future. The artists’ inspiration provides a map to finding a new and exciting route to that self-realisation.

Now, speaking of pure essence, about that soup . . .