Art and its Purpose
On Art
I used to be offended when people misunderstood my work, then I came to realize that the evolution of thought is what art is all about. Not that it’s about being misunderstood but it’s about setting the idea free and allowing it to be whatever it becomes. It’s not always easy to allow your work to be its own thing separate from you as the creator.
The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke. — Jerzy Kosinski
When we set out to create something, we must trust that when it’s time, a message will be revealed. We must also be understanding that it won’t be in the same way that we, as the artist, received it, because the artist didn’t have her own art yet to give herself that message. So as the art is sent out into the world, it’s going to give its message in a different way than the artist received it.
The true use of art is, first, to cultivate the artist’s own spiritual nature.— George Inness
What’s great about being an artist is that our art not only evolves and changes when we set it free but we also evolve and change every time we set our work free. The process of creating changes us in million different ways. The way we see our own struggles gaze at us, the way we fill gaps and solve problems, and the way we attempt to give our ideas digestible context. These few things require us to be conscious. To consistently carve away in such a conscious state that it makes evolution of the mind inevitable.
I love that art changes its creator and its viewer. It sounds fair, and life’s never fair.
Arts Only Purpose is to Convey the Truth
If art has taught me anything it’s that the best artists are honest with themselves and the world about their own internal dialogues. Not that they use literal internal dialogue as their art. They just convey it in their own way.
The dark parts of their minds, the light parts, the murky parts most of us won’t touch with a ten foot pole are the places where art lives.
The thing is most people are just too scared or too busy to be honest about their own murky parts. So it is a bold endeavor to discuss these things out loud.
I wish I could say that everyone will celebrate your honesty, but many people have convinced themselves that those parts aren’t supposed to be shared. That those parts are unladylike like, too emotional, or just plain ole too much. But artists know that these murky parts are the bricks to their foundation. They toss them around tuck them in a couple different places and when they find the right spot, they build their works on top of them.
