Every Frame is a Painting

A friend hung an empty picture frame.

He had yet to decide on what to put inside.

In the film industry, there is a saying, “Every frame is a painting.”

It’s the concept that every frame in the film should be worthy of a painting.

I implored my friend that this empty frame was a painting, too.

Much of art is empty space with some outlines.

The late painter and sculptor Lucio Fontana is known for his solid canvases with a slit in the middle. That empty slit makes a Fontana sell for millions.

Artist Marcel Duchamp famously purchased a urinal and added a signature, making it art.

Duchamp was an advocate of “Conceptual art” or “art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art object.”

Michelangelo famously said about David, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

Much of art is the challenge of resistance to do the work and then not being afraid to publish it into the world or put a “frame” around it.

An empty frame may be the quintessential piece of art because all art starts with a blank canvas.

It’s up to the artist to define the space.