25 January, 2012
Art and Rain
Disclaimer: There might be mention to the existence of art in these writings, if you are sensitive to art or art based subjects please don't read.
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"How do you define Art?" My friend Dave asked me this over some coffee. I stared at him blankly for what felt like an eternity. Ruminating over paintings and sculptures that I have seen on museum walls. I thought about how Andy Warhol would approach the question or about what my art teachers would say but still didn't know how to answer this. I should Know this. I thought I did but I drew a . We talked for a while but I never answered his question, it quickly became apparent that I didn't know how to define Art. How embarrassing, I finally gave up.
Its Raining, right now, as I write this. I love the Rain. Its the sound it makes against the plants. Its the way it moves the trees. The smell of first rain on the street. I notice all of this. Somehow I am made aware of these things that have always been in front of me. My surroundings. The air. The earth. Here. For that day or two of rain everything is new and different. What is ordinary comes into focus and its somehow beautiful. I guess its kind of like that. Art I mean. Its like the rain. It helps me see what is otherwise invisible. It changes the opacity of things and then makes me aware of them. And like the rain it comes and goes without asking. Sometimes art is hanging on a wall but Sometimes its not. Sometimes its manmade, with Paint. Sometimes its a metaphor the author uses, or the sound of a bus on the freeway. And sometimes its the rain. But its always there, in the ordinary things. Waiting to be found. Waiting to fall from the sky.
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Thought I would change things up keep it short tonight, let me know if you have any thoughts about this rather abstract post. BTW everyones posts have been amazing I promise I will comment more in the future. Thanks - Curt
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Curt, I'm pleasantly surprised by your narrative. I imagine a cat sitting at a window. Maybe this is why we're special shopping soul mates.
ReplyDeleteI remember a discussion in high school about the virtue of art: must there be a purpose? Are there specific guidelines that must be present? This issue is the very heart of all art theory classes and the answer is equally clear and indefinable. In order words, as artists, we're given tools to determine the answer, yet it is our own journey in discovering it ourselves that makes us better artists.
In music, you can look at a piece through line (the movement of individual parts), timbre (color), harmony (depth), rhythm/meter (texture), dynamic (volume), tempo (time/speed), balance, and form (variety, emphasis, unity, contrast). These are almost universal art principles and elements that we use to validate a work.
Questions arise: Does a work have to address all of these? To what extent must it achieve an element to be considered valid? Can a work exist without purpose?
Again, it's all about the journey. Your perceptions about art and these elements determine how you ascribe value to various things. Art tends to do that: excite the mind and soul, question reality, and spur introspection.
So how do I define art? It's a work that starts a journey. It raises questions and draws emotion out of you, and if it fails to do so, then more questions arise.
Art is everywhere: a ray of light, the curve of a breast, the brown of toast, the picture, the painting, the composition, the statue...It's more about the perception and not about the item.
BTW, is this a metaphor about God? :-p
ReplyDeleteHaha, "What is Art?" is the exact topic I was planning on writing about next week for this blog (great minds think alike).
ReplyDeleteIn short, I think that art can be anything that makes us examine ourselves and the world around us (on physical, emotional, or cultural levels, for example).
Along the lines of what Mark said, art also has to have enough of an interest to have an audience. By saying that, I don't mean that the artist needs to cater themselves to a specific audience or even an audience at all, but I mean that (good) art has to have the element of being open to differing interpretations. One of my favorite composers, Matthias Pintscher, said "One will never find in a piece of art something that one doesn't have within one's self." In this sense, the audience gives the art something that the artist can't give the piece of art: a sense of timelessness that comes from the work being open to interpretation. There's a reason why we still look to people like Shakespeare, Beethoven, Brahms, Paul Klee, Andy Warhol and John Cage. What they all did strikes a balance between saying something profound about who they and we are, but it's still relevant beyond its era and open to questions.
To clarify the statement above, "In this sense, the audience gives the art something that the artist can't give the piece of art: a sense of timelessness that comes from the work being open to interpretation," I mean that the audience is the one to interpret, respond and turn the art into a dialogue.
ReplyDeleteArt aint nothin but money and bitches
ReplyDeleteto some people.
But for me I've also struggled to define it. I think we all have our own definition and they are all make sense in our own realities. Anyway, I'm not being much help but Kurt, I really like what you wrote. it's like you pulled me into a scene without me even knowing. smooth move.
Thanks for the comments guys.
ReplyDeleteMark: Yes I agree with you and I am also puzzled by this question of whether or not art has to follow a certain criteria. My quest in writing this piece was too examine and possibly propose that what we sometimes call art (because it happens to hang on the right walls) isn't art and what we think of as ordinary and everyday can actually be a great source of life and inspiration. I wanted to flip that perspective for a second. But I don't know but I think your on to something there. Also no this wasn't a metaphor for God although I don't think you can avoid God when your talking about what art is. The last sentence in my post Is a way of showing that what we try so hard to accomplish (creating life changing art) effortlessly falls from the sky from an alternate source (what every you interpret that to be for me its God).
Derek: Thank you for this, I am going to ponder your comment for a while. I totally agree with your favorite composer. What he said is genius, it is in us and that goes for life also, "enlightenment" doesn't mean changing yourself, it is changing your persecutive. I also agree that the audience brings a completely different dimension to the work but some of my best work has been when I was alone in my room and no one has ever see it. There is something very special about this to, its almost like a secret union I have with my work sometimes. But Yes the audience is important, that is something I take for granted.
Nik: Your right when you say "Art aint nothin but money and bitches." this has long be an approach I have learns to come to terms with. In the end we are nothing more than animals waiting to eat and breed. Word my brother. I will cherish your words... money and bitches indeed.
Thanks fellas
Great stuff, Curt. I am reminded of Man on a Wire where, after he got down from the World Trade Center, he was asked why he did what he did, and he made the comment that asking "Why" is a very American thing to ask. I feel like the same is true about the desire to put definitions onto concepts. I think it is our love of science that leads us to try to lock things down into explainable. Then whenever we get to something beyond explanation, we get frustrated. I always liked what Socrates said when he was told by a friend that the Oracle of Delphi pronounced that he was the wisest of all men. He basically said that the only reason he is wiser than others is that he knows that he is ignorant. I like to fall back on that a lot. I feel like we are all much more ignorant of the world than we think we are. The same can be said for art.
ReplyDeleteDan your so right it's good to always hold our ignorance in hand especially when dealing with a topic like this.good words my friend. Also great movie why do we feel we must know the motivation behind everything. Maybe it is an American thing. The best things in like are sometimes unexplainable.
ReplyDeleteAlso Derek I must add, I am sorry if I stepped on any of your words, but there is still so much to discuss on this topic. Please feel free to write about this next week and we can continue more of this conversation. I am interested to hear more of your take on this. Thanks
Curt, you totally didn't. Your perspective is totally different from mine and I really enjoyed reading your post. I'm writing about a related topic. ;)
ReplyDeleteIt is a great skill to be able to make beautiful things. Perhaps another important skill is the ability to perceive beauty. People witha strong radar for beauty can look into what seems like a totally mundane topic and find beauty in it.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, how boring is a chair? Not so fast! Lately Curt and I have been obsessed with the Eames chairs, which take a boring piece of furniture and make it exquisite. Take a look http://www.modern-source.com/product_detail.php?pid=774