Warning: Philosophical and academic hyperbole to follow in this post.
I find that the most heated debates can rise from a difference of definition. In an effort to head off some of this conflict I will attempt to define Art in this context before going further, as it applies to me.
To start with the easy question, I am capitalizing it because Art embodies a collection of ideas that is so central to my way of being that I feel it has become a collective entity. In this case the capitalization reflects the tendency of pre-20th century writing to use capital letters to indicate emphasis.
In this case Art is defined as the attempt of one person in a specific time to communicate with another person and/or moment. How is that for vague? I am trying to say that it is when something is created, (an image, poem, novel, sculpture, play, speech, etc.) in an effort to preserve or transmit information for another.
Sometimes the communication is secondary to function, such as in the design of a chair, some times it is primary as with a poem. But it is the use of skill to craft this in such a way as to convey more than mere purpouse.
Designers use this when they use a particular color to invoke a response from their audience. If I were to see a woman wearing black I get impressions associated with that color, like night, shadows, mystery, Audry Hepburn in the dress from Breakfast at Tiffany's, the beatnik movement, Goths, mourning and a host of other things that I probably will not consciously register in the moment.
Manipulating color to create a response is one of the Elements of Design, which along with the Principles of Composition, create the core of a classical art education. For a basic discussions of these things see http://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/Compose.htm where a simple handout gives basic definitions of these things as they apply to the visual arts. I say visual arts because I have the most experience with these, but they can apply to other disciplines as well, just with some modifications. I will not go into these more in depth because I spent the last six years trying to learn about them, and only recently have been able to manipulate them with any, pardon the term, Art.
Anyway. So Art is using rules (or purposefully bending, breaking and rearranging them) with skill to communicate (with yourself and/or others). O.K. so is that ambiguous enough?
What I am trying to say is that for me it Art is a way of connecting the interlacing strands of the Universe and showing them to others. How A, influenced B, which is reflected by C, connects to M-Z and back again. It is this intricacy that defines my life, how no one thing is isolated that comforts me.
A play called Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare is based on the idea that if knowing someone is one degree of separation, and two steps is knowing someone who knows someone then everyone is connected by at most six from anyone else on Earth. It is also called "Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon" You can make your own on Facebook's Friend Wheel. This model is used by biologists, market analysts, web managers and others within their own field to find connections and influences. I, like others, take this further and apply it to everything, sometimes it takes a few more steps but it does work when given a chance.
So you see, sometimes these things get away from me, and I get a bit lost out amongst the connections. This leads to long rambling posts that I hope still get my point across before everyone looses interest.
Art captures a moment in time. It not only captures the environment but also the artists feelings, skills, abilities, etc at the time. It's as much of what the artists makes as the artist themselves.
ReplyDeleteIt's the feeling and expression of creativity that makes art what it is.
History is not an art...but art has a history. Art can capture history in a way that no historical account can compare to. Writings of stories of battles written by poets and writers (not soldiers) tell of the humanity and emotion of those events. A painter paints a portrait of the Romanov's not knowing that they will be gone but captures a moment where they are happy. A sculpture captures the image of a people that are long gone. A man in Greece has a small sculpture made of his family. What that sculpture meant to him isn't the same as what it means to us. To him its a memory of his family and a way for them to always be together. It is that creativity and emotion that give humanity it's greatest gift. The limitless power of the human imagination. If we can imagine it...we can create it. Which is the drive for not only art but science and all other things human. Human imagination created most wondrous things from Musical pieces, to paintings, exploring the new world, exploring the stars, and the great ancient wonders of our time and times past. The human mind and imagination is a powerful tool. Not only that of artists but of scientists and all other walks of life. But at the same time that imagination created some of the most tragic and terrible things in the world such as nuclear weapons, war, tools of war, genocide, persecution of millions of people over the past 10,000 years, ideologies, and greed.
Art is one of those few things that allows humanity to express its imagination and emotions without physically harming others. It gives a person an emotional outlet of painting the scene of a burning city instead of actually burning the city down. A boy writes a sad song about a girl he lost instead of killing himself. A girl draws herself with a diploma after graduating college when she is under pressure or a lot of stress.
Art is an expression of the artist. A time capsule of that moment in the artist life. It tells of their emotions, their abilities, what was going on in their life, who they saw that day, the environment around them, and much more comes together in art. It is a window into the human spirit. Or even a piece of that spirit. Someone's life work that they put their heart and soul into.
Art is a unique gift. Something that is timeless. That is much an aesthetic item as it is expressive or historical. It captures a part of the human spirit.
and I have no idea where all that came from...O.o