I heard Seth Godin call art, “the act of making something where you forget the name of what you’re seeing”
That concept took me back to my first drawing and painting class. On day one, the lesson was that if you draw what you think you’re seeing, you will always miss the point. You must draw what you’re actually seeing.
The act of doing so requires a smoother connect between observation and action. When any information comes in our brains we observe–>process–>act. The wildcard is the processing, because it typically happens on a subconscious level.
Both my drawing experience and Seth’s quote point to the fact that we’re over-processing our observations. Just like we’re over-processing our food, it takes away all the good stuff. All of the nuance.
Judging and categorizing is easy. The hard work is to really see what’s in front of you without preconceptions.