The Compliance Artist.
By: Sarah Stevenson.
Oftentimes when I am asked my educational background and I respond with; “Well, I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts…” I am stopped short with the following question; “How on earth did you end up in Compliance and what does Art have to do with Compliance?”
I have been pondering this question after mulling through 2000+ pages of proposed mortgage regulation and came up with the following conclusion.
Research
Compliance involves a significant amount of research as we all know. Whether researching Regulation Z, Subpart F for specific rules on private education loans or Regulation CC for how long you can place a hold on a check a significant amount of a compliance professional’s time is spent on research. The same is true for an artist. As artists, art historians and curators, research is always involved. Before starting a new painting I may study and research another artist’s technique or use of mediums to get my desired outcome. In curating a show or writing a report on a particular movement or artist significant research is involved before one can even begin to explain a particular artist’s technique or why they painted this particular image or perhaps why an artist repeated a color in much of their work, such as Johannes Vermeer and his use of lapis lazuli or natural ultramarine in his paintings when really no other artists of his time were.
Interpretation
While ever frustrating at times art and regulatory compliance are open to interpretation. One may spend hours observing and studying a particular piece wondering what the artist meant and interpreting the piece as a struggle the artist may have had or sense a feeling of anger based on the use of red, when another may feel the use of red was a feeling of passion the artist wished to portray.