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According to the dictionary, emotion is defined as a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from

one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others. This include any particular feelings that
characterize such a state of mind, such as joy, anger, love, hate and horror. There are great
differences between feelings, emotions, passion, and sentiment. While the average person may see
these words as something of the same meaning, emotion really is an intensified feeling which often
involves a physical as well as a mental response and implies outward expression or agitation.

The subject of emotion itself goes quite deep, touching it’s relation with the topography of the
mind, the theories of feelings, cognitivist and perception and even as far as its psychological and
evolutionary approaches. To lessen the scope for easier understanding, we’ve chosen to study how
emotion plays a big role in art and vice versa, how a particular effect in art can effect emotion.

Since an artwork usually involve two parties, the artist and the viewer; the role of emotion for these
two parties slightly differ. An artist’s work may be interpreted as his mood, but it may also be a
manipulation of it to instill a particular emotion within the viewer. Here is a famous quote by
Francis Bacon, “Very few people have a natural feeling for painting, and so, of
course, they naturally think that painting is an expression of the artist's mood.
But it rarely is. Very often he may be in greatest despair and be painting his
happiest paintings.”

This gives us an idea of how flexible yet tight emotion actually is in terms of its role in an artwork.
For example, viewers take the time to look at a work and respond to it. This response is never
without emotion. While stimuli to the mind, body and spirit may change a viewer’s emotion of a
particular artwork, this does not dismiss the fact that they are always present. Emotion may even be
the cause of meaning in most artworks. The interpretation of an artwork’s meaning is very delicate
as it is impossible to tell which part of you the art speaks to, or which part moves another. It is a
complex interplay between the heart and the soul, the mind and the body.

Thus, in terms of emotion and meaning of a work, it is never static. The fluidity opens up
possibilities of expanding a work’s meaning given how we relate ourselves to the work. Our
subjective response can’t be categorized into different awareness, and emotion can’t be separated
from the experience. Once separated, the meaning of the work goes along with it. It is our critical
awareness that determines how much of an experience we’re receiving from appreciating a
particular artwork.

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