"Cytochrome C"

For me, as I suspect it is for many, "art" is difficult to define. Art is, I believe, many things: personal and universal, natural and material, emotive and intellectual, reductionist and holist. It is a form of both having something to say, and listening to what is being said. I believe the canvas (or whatever mode of art you choose) is the interface of where the artist and the receiver find a point in time and space where real communication occurs. For me, art is a representation (not just visual) of the world both around and within us, even if that world is too small, too large, too bizzare or foreign to perceive. I've chosen this image of a painting by Irving Geis to illustrate what art is for me, because I believe it represents many of these things well. Geis' pictoral representation of "Cytochrome C" is a magnificent example of both the universality as well as the personal nature of art. For me, it is a reminder that art is all around us -- even within us at times; and, that it takes not only an artist to create art, but also an audience to receive it.