The Two Viewpoints of Art by Jim Corkrum Page 1 Do you remember the story of the train whistle from your high school physics class? If not, it goes something like this: A train is going down the tracks over flat country at around 50 miles per hour. On board the train is the engineer. Meanwhile, less than a mile away from where the train is right now, there is a man standing near the tracks. The engineer, a gentleman of clear and steady vision, leans out of his locomotive and sees the man off in the distance. To make sure that the man is aware that a train is approaching, the engineer holds down the whistle, which lets out a loud, piercing steady shriek at a fixed pitch level. The engineer, sitting in his seat in the fast-moving train, hears the whistle at a constant, steady pitch. The man on the tracks also hears the whistle as a constant steady pitch as the train approaches. But, when the train goes by him and heads off into the distance, he hears the pitch level drop sharply to a lower level. However, for the engineer on board the train, the pitch of the whistle never changes. So, which is the correct? Is it the same pitch or did it drop down to a lower level when the train went past where the man was standing? The effect described here is called the Doppler Effect, and the correct answer is, of course, that both men are correct in what they heard. There are two realities at work here: The point of view of the engineer on board the train moving down the tracks, and the point of view of the man on the ground standing still. Two realities, two truths, both correct. And just like the scientific reality of the Doppler Effect, there are also two viewpoints in art that are different, yet correct: the viewpoint of the artist and the viewpoint of the art observer. Each sees art in a different way and each is right in what he sees. That is the subject of this article. I am fortunate enough to be a full time artist. I take photographs and also use the computer to create digital paintings. If you are reading this on my web site, no doubt you have seen some of my work. If so, you probably have formed an opinion about some of the works exhibited here. So, in this case, you are the observer and I am the artist. We both have our own story to tell. And we both are right. Of course, if ten people look at my work, there may easily be ten different reactions; so now we may have ten truths going here plus mine for a total of eleven. But, lets just pretend for the sake of simplicity that there are just two of us involved in this process: you and me. Continue to Page 2, 3