Edit or Publish Saved Feature: Artsy Fartsy
The title, "Artsy Fartsy", is extremely relevant to what I will be commenting on. I have come to accept the fact that not everyone understands art and all the facets that come with it, but something is still missing in the way art is perceived by one who has never been acquainted with the way art is made or its history.
You may be saying at this point, "well, I just don't care, and art has nothing to do with my life so why learn about it." You know what, I back you up on that point. I hate to learn things that have nothing to do with my life. I mean, why just learn things if you are never going to need them. Some would say that grades are a reason, and if you care about them they are, but this is a problem for so many people that it can not be right.
The education system is based on grades. That is, the amount of effort that is put forth in order to learn things adequatly enough to do well on a paper or test. Sounds great in theory, but it does not work for many people. In high school there are those who do nothing and learn nothing, and there are those who find themselves caught between a love for something and their schoolwork, mostly because the schoolwork has nothing to do with what they are interested in.
Now you say, "but it must be done. You have to do things that you don't want to."
Chubby says "NO." This is a world in which we are exempt from evolution in its classical sense. We all survive unless an ailment is too severe, an accident overcomes us, or we kill each other. We know how to keep the genetically frail alive, and we care for the elderly until it is their time to pass from this world. We have more control over our destinies than ever before.
What does art have to do with this? Well, art represents this extra time that we have because we need not worry about being eaten by another animal. We may do whatever we want with this extra time, thus is the essence of civilization… free will and control.
For some reason, we have initiated a new way in which to keep ourselves constantly on guard. Some of us realize that this system needs correction, somewhat subconsciously in many cases. The artist touches the world and feels its harshness or its beauty. He then reaches within himself and puts that reality down in a medium of choice. For that brief period of time, the world belongs to the artist. He is free.
This new way in which we keep ourselves at bay can only be described as a clash between emotion and the human mind. There are those with power, either through money or looks, which develop the killer instinct of a predator, but they have a weapon that was never meant for a killer, their intellect. They can think. For example, a lion doesn't know that it is stronger than an antelope, it sees its prey as food that must be eaten in order to survive. The antelope knows the same, and it runs.
The law of nature is survive and reproduce. Compared to what we go through, this is a cakewalk. Without our minds constantly occupied with survival, as in the animal kingdom, we have too much time to think. Our habits become engaging instead of instinctual. A gazelle that smoked a pack a day would never survive in the wild.
Thus art is produced. Dance, painting, music… it doesn't matter the medium, all is the same for the artist in his escape from reality, or, is it better to say bringing reality into him? He takes something that has no concrete significance to the way in which we live, and devours it. He regurgitates art. The dancer springs with a step either lightened by childhood dreams or toughened by abuse. The painter cringes at the sight of an oddly placed flower and recreates this solemn world on canvas. And the musician… he is perhaps the least "in touch" of all the artists. His medium exists only in a brief instant. His art dissipates as quickly as it is made.
For what it is worth, this artist will continue to interpret the world as he sees fit and will hope that others shall do the same. Where we live… socially speaking, is made of people. We control and develop the land. A step towards a prosperous society should be accompanied by an understanding of art and why the perception of it should be varied and arguable. Chubby says… continue as you will, but make sure it is YOU who wills it.