art.object.story: The Art of Interpretation | Panel Discussion

art.object.story: The Art of Interpretation Panel Conversation with Bonny McClain, Hanna Manes, Karin Delaisse, Sam Delaisse, and Toni Bryja
How do our lived experiences shape what we see when we look at art? In this opening conversation for art.object.story, geospatial data analyst, writer, and speaker Bonny McClain invites fellow artists and thinkers to explore the many ways meaning is made—through perception, memory, bias, and the stories we carry.
Rather than staying anchored to their chairs, panelists are encouraged to move through the artworks on display, using the surrounding vignettes as prompts for discussing how interpretation shifts from person to person. The conversation will highlight how artists understand (and sometimes resist) the ways audiences read their work, and how viewers construct narratives from what’s in front of them.
This panel sets the stage for Bonny’s Saturday workshop, offering a broad entry point into the themes she’ll explore more deeply—without prescribing a single approach. Each panelist brings their own lens, inviting a dynamic, spacious dialogue about how we see, why we see, and what happens when we let art speak back.