Art is one of the means used to communicate certain ideas to the audience. During ages, there were many subject explored in the works of art depending on the problems that bother people at the time. However, there are concepts and themes that are considered to be “eternal” for art. In this paper, we are going to discuss the concept of time while exploring familiar surrounding and daily life.
We will focus on the ways the artists “represent” different approaches to the meaning of time and its perception by different people. In order to explore this subject, we will focus on three works that depict different concepts of time.
The first work is the colored pencil drawing called “Time Heals Everything”. In the drawing, we can see a traditional symbol of time – clock- with a branch of roses growing from it. We can also observe birds that also have their symbolic meaning.
Providing the interpretation of this drawing, we can say that clock symbolizes the endless of time, and its meaning in people’s everyday. We can remember or forget things within some time, but whatever happens, in some period of time, all people have other vision of the problem. Thus, the most terrible event in the past may seem a miserable thing in future, and “even bare branches can blossom with beautiful roses”. The same, a wounded soul can be healed within time.
The second picture is the photography of the cemetery. There is one grave in the focus telling about the one who lies there.
The symbolism of the picture is obvious, it shows that time endless and limited at the same time. In fact, each person thinks that death is something that will never happen to him/her, or his/her relatives. In fact, time is merciful and cruel at the same time. One never knows when his/her time comes to an end.
Ant it does not matter what life you led and what you achieved, people will know about you only from the epitaph on your tomb. The light of the setting sun symbolizes the peace and tranquility which “govern” on the cemetery. All emotions, happiness and tragedies are buried here, and only memories will live forever.
The third picture is the photograph of people and their everyday life. They go on their business and they try to catch up with the things they have to do. As a contrast to the busy people, a figure of a homeless person is in the focus which is very important for the interpretation of the photo.
The message of the picture is that every individual has a personal perception of the time. This perception is developing under the influence of everyday affairs, problems and happy moment of the individual’s life. Thus, we can see that the figure in the center (a homeless person) is frozen in the time.
Consequently, the time goes very slowly for him: all he does is sitting and looking at people around, and thinking over everything he sees. As opposed to his “slow time”, the time of people around is rushing, as well as the people. They have many thought about their money, job, families, etc., their images are blurred as well as their thoughts which change quickly. This technique is used to show how fast their time in going by. Will they notice their life?
Time is all we have, and time is something that we cannot control. It governs our life, it wounds and it heals at the same time. The concept of time is one of the central concepts in art. There are many techniques that can be used to show time in the picture. Some of them were discussed in this paper.