Visual Metaphor and the Contemporary Artist

Visual Metaphor and the Contemporary Artist: Ways of Thinking and Making investigates the practices and exhibition of contemporary artists to understand how they create meaning. Inquiry into metaphor arose from the field of rhetoric and has a tradition of study in linguistics. How, then, does metaphor become visual? And how do artists use them? Theories of visual metaphor often align with theories of linguistic metaphor. Yet cognitive views of metaphor suggest linguistic media may not be the only or best starting point for understanding visual metaphor. This study determines a conceptual structure to the creation of visual metaphors by these artists that closely aligns with the cognitive view of metaphor. This study also questions the role of metaphor in art education. §This qualitative study includes art-based research methods in developing a conceptual structure of visual metaphor creation. Dan Serig takes an in-depth look at one aspect of artists' work in a way that will be of interest to people seeking an example of alternative approaches to empirical research that includes studio practices, as well as those interested in the intersection of cognition and art.