Evolution or Revolution?
I made a disturbing discovery today while walking home after my Intro Media art and thinking about how frighteningly wierd my professor is:
I think my artistic self has evolved. AND/OR: I think that my artistic self has begun a revolution within.
I have stated in the past that all artists are selfish. I continue to stand by this satement. generally.
i shall stand by it until i learn otherwise anyway.
Explanation:
WHY create art? Why do artists create art? What do artists get out of doing artwork?
It is my personal belief that artists create in order to grow.
Art is somewhat of an outlet from the real world. Anything can happen. The artist can command the pencil, the paintbrush, the charcoal, the stone, the piano, the guitar to form any sort of mark, shape, form, note or sound that he/she pleases. It is a release for the artist to compose in whatever medium he/she chooses from the drudgery of every day life. In doing art, the artist generally and normally is contemplating a subject of their own interest. A subject that is personal to the artist. Art can’t NOT be without meaning to the artist. It just can’t.
I scribble a dark mark onto a piece of paper and call it art. First of all, it’s art because I call it so. Second of all, the mark was made out of some emotion or reaction that caused me to make it, whether i’m aware of it and can call it by name or not.
Now you’ll have some people say, well what about Andy Warhol? Warhol’s art was all based upon the idea of art being created by a machine, with no emotional attatchments to it whatsoever.
The very idea of his works is the human attachment to his art. The artist cannot escape it. By calling it art, by claiming it, the artist attaches his mind, his ideas, his emotions. Correction: By CREATING art, the attachment is made.
With all of this in mind, I state that the Artist is a particularily selfish being. I might also take a larger jump by stating that all art (ESPECIALLY FINE ART) is created for self exploration.
If you’re a person who doesn’t consider yourself artsy, think about a time when you’ve looked at a piece or art and thought, “I don’t get it.” or “That is wierd”. Can you think of just one?
If you can remember what that image was, i’m going to tell you that whoever created that piece of art, did not intend for people to “get it” and did not care if it appeared wierd. To that artist, what he/she created was part of the happenings of his/her own life at the time. By ‘happenings’ i mean not only literal happenings, but maybe psychological happenings, anything really.
Artists create when they feel sad, happy, angry, depressed, excited, relaxed, etc… and it shows through their work. As an artist, when i create when i’m feeling a certain way, or something particular is happening in my family or in our nation or world, or i’ve been thinking about something that’s troubling me, or i’m confused about what i should do in a cartain situation, I am learning about myself. As an artist, I could almost say, I’m doctoring myself.
And again, as i’ve stated before- more or less -art tells what is going on inside the artist. It reveals truths. NOT LITERALLY reveals truths… for example, if i draw a picture of Jesus Christ as a woman, I’m in no way revealing the truth about Jesus Christ’s gender. It could suggest something else…. i dont know…like.. i could be depicting Jesus Christ as myself in an attempt for me to grow closer to living like Christ. or anything! Only the artist can know what he/she’s created. And even then, the artist him/herself may not even understand the reason for the marks they’ve made or the images they’ve depicted. But they key object here is that the artist created and personally grew from it.
Artists are not out to try and change the world. Many say they are. But I believe that they’ve just got their understandings of their own purposes mixed up and skewed. For example, making a piece of work that is politically offending to a group of people is not made to change how that group of people thinks. It is made to offend. And more so, for the pleasure of the artist. AND EVEN MORE SO, it is created out of reaction. If artists could change the world, they would be creating not out of reaction to things that have already happened. It’s almost as if artists are the social world’s whores, who create in reaction to the social world’s acts.
Artists create for no other than themselves. AAAAnd yet again, i state, that even if an artist paints a picture for you or OF you, or writes you a song, writes it ABOUT you, gives it to you, calls it Your Song, its never really yours. It always belongs to the artist. He/she’s just letting it sit in your house, letting you believe believe its yours. Once the work is completed, the understanding that the artist gains from the act of creating it, has already been had.
THEREFORE: The artist is a selfish being.
I have been through art classes and listened to artists talk my whole life. More recently, i’ve been highly concentrated around it for the past three years. All of the art is just everybody trying to figure out where they’ve come from and where they’re going.
And that is why i feel like i don’t fit in so much anymore. Those famous artists, i believe that there are many of them who died and never figured out what IT was. Of course, one can always continue to create art. You cant just ever “have been” an artist. One always is. But i believe that once the artist discovers the big thing about him/herself that they’ve been looking for, the urgent need to constantly create dissipates.
I am not suggesting anything about my self as far as my knowing who i am. I think part of life’s journey is figuring out who you are. But I’ve begun to see a different destiny i may have. It’s a bittersweet feeling. A passing through one threshold and entering another but always leaving the door open.