11.08.2004
Art, Evolution, Relativity, and so Much More
“This was an awakening for those who had not slept; and a dream for those who were awake; and a vision for those who could not see.”
-J.S. Brown
An artist in modern times has a wealth of options concerning their expression. There exists as many mediums and methods for the creation of art that it boggles the mind. Artists today generally end up specializing in a narrow band of mediums where they feel comfortable creating their art.
If we go far back enough in time, we see these choices begin to strip away, one-by-one, until finally, we see ourselves in a cave using primitive methods to inscribe simple symbols on the walls. These artists are really no different from their more modern brethren. The significant difference lay in that they were limited by the times and circumstances in which they lived. They lacked the resources, opportunity, and scope to do anything more than put their images on those cave walls. This is all they had, and they made the best of it.
It is possible to trace through time the evolution of humans and the progression of human art. Following closely in the footsteps of our cave painters are those artists who saw shapes in fragments of rock and used crude tools to refine those shapes. As our ancestors’ ability with such tools evolved, so did their ability to create works of art. We find carvings made of all sorts of materials: tusk, bone, rock, wood, metal, clay, and so on. Those items which have survived into our time demonstrate our crude beginnings and the promise of more refinements to come.
As we found our way out of the various ages of development, our art has grown more sophisticated, more able to produce emotion and wonder, more meaningful to a broader audience of people. It has helped us mark the times, and it has given us something greater to aspire to. Art was perhaps our very first window towards communication with each other; at the very least, it allowed us to provide at least a “sketch” of individual ideas and feelings that could be shared collectively. In this way it was bound up in our religious and spiritual traditions for thousands of years.
When people discovered they had something to express that wasn’t always about religious or spiritual matters, art began to outgrow its narrow confines and burst forth as a way of expressing the entire human condition; this would prove to be a critical turning point in our social and individual evolution. Art ceased to exist for a specific purpose other than for its own sake, people began to recognize they too, had a purpose that did not necessarily begin or end with mere survival, but with attaining something just beyond their reach. Art begins to show us that existence can be so much more than simply breathing, eating, excreting, breeding, and dying.
The artist challenges his or her work to show them something about themselves or the world around them. They dive into their work with a desire to live within the process of creation until they touch something inside them they cannot understand nor deny. It fills them with light and darkness, with anticipation, and dread. It touches every inch of their being, and for that moment, they are cosmic, orgasmic, whole, and enlightened. The medium, the art, the expression, they all blend into one to become a microcosmic universe and the artist alone is the God of that universe. For some, this happens every single time, for others, they struggle to find that place and reconcile it with everything else around them. This feeling can become like a drug that never fully satisfies. It can both save and damn the artist for all time. We all have seen the results of a great artist, whose tragedy flows as water or blood; knows too much, sees too much, hears too much, and understands too much. They can no longer abide the separation of their universe from the universe we all must share. Their creation consumes their soul, their addiction consumes their body, and their insanity consumes their mind.
Human art is an expression of the times in which it is expressed. It is a reflection of all that is. It makes no judgments, rather it allows all to assign their own. Art both mirrors and mocks as each tries to understand how it “fits” into the individual understanding of every conscious being that experiences it. Art need not always be a vision, or a sound, a word, or a feeling. It is what it is, yet it is rare for any two individuals to come away with exactly the same understanding of it. We believe our art defines us, yet it is we who define it. It is we who determine what it stands for and how it affects us. What may begin as nothing more than a therapeutic expression for the artist can somehow be transformed into a spectacle for others to immerse within.
Art is the ultimate expression of human philosophy. It asks questions for which there are no answers, it provides answers for which there are not yet questions. It shatters boundaries and it retreats to safety without providing any reason. Art exists and yet it has no quantifiable or logical purpose, other than to show us just how much we do not know. No matter how great our knowledge, no matter how infinite our wisdom, no matter how powerful we may be, art has the power to strip us naked and reveal our weakness for all to see. When we see ourselves through it, we are transparent and lacking, yet we are somehow strengthened by the fact that it shows us just how little of our total potential we have reached.
© 2004, J.S.Brown
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-J.S. Brown
An artist in modern times has a wealth of options concerning their expression. There exists as many mediums and methods for the creation of art that it boggles the mind. Artists today generally end up specializing in a narrow band of mediums where they feel comfortable creating their art.
If we go far back enough in time, we see these choices begin to strip away, one-by-one, until finally, we see ourselves in a cave using primitive methods to inscribe simple symbols on the walls. These artists are really no different from their more modern brethren. The significant difference lay in that they were limited by the times and circumstances in which they lived. They lacked the resources, opportunity, and scope to do anything more than put their images on those cave walls. This is all they had, and they made the best of it.
It is possible to trace through time the evolution of humans and the progression of human art. Following closely in the footsteps of our cave painters are those artists who saw shapes in fragments of rock and used crude tools to refine those shapes. As our ancestors’ ability with such tools evolved, so did their ability to create works of art. We find carvings made of all sorts of materials: tusk, bone, rock, wood, metal, clay, and so on. Those items which have survived into our time demonstrate our crude beginnings and the promise of more refinements to come.
As we found our way out of the various ages of development, our art has grown more sophisticated, more able to produce emotion and wonder, more meaningful to a broader audience of people. It has helped us mark the times, and it has given us something greater to aspire to. Art was perhaps our very first window towards communication with each other; at the very least, it allowed us to provide at least a “sketch” of individual ideas and feelings that could be shared collectively. In this way it was bound up in our religious and spiritual traditions for thousands of years.
When people discovered they had something to express that wasn’t always about religious or spiritual matters, art began to outgrow its narrow confines and burst forth as a way of expressing the entire human condition; this would prove to be a critical turning point in our social and individual evolution. Art ceased to exist for a specific purpose other than for its own sake, people began to recognize they too, had a purpose that did not necessarily begin or end with mere survival, but with attaining something just beyond their reach. Art begins to show us that existence can be so much more than simply breathing, eating, excreting, breeding, and dying.
The artist challenges his or her work to show them something about themselves or the world around them. They dive into their work with a desire to live within the process of creation until they touch something inside them they cannot understand nor deny. It fills them with light and darkness, with anticipation, and dread. It touches every inch of their being, and for that moment, they are cosmic, orgasmic, whole, and enlightened. The medium, the art, the expression, they all blend into one to become a microcosmic universe and the artist alone is the God of that universe. For some, this happens every single time, for others, they struggle to find that place and reconcile it with everything else around them. This feeling can become like a drug that never fully satisfies. It can both save and damn the artist for all time. We all have seen the results of a great artist, whose tragedy flows as water or blood; knows too much, sees too much, hears too much, and understands too much. They can no longer abide the separation of their universe from the universe we all must share. Their creation consumes their soul, their addiction consumes their body, and their insanity consumes their mind.
Human art is an expression of the times in which it is expressed. It is a reflection of all that is. It makes no judgments, rather it allows all to assign their own. Art both mirrors and mocks as each tries to understand how it “fits” into the individual understanding of every conscious being that experiences it. Art need not always be a vision, or a sound, a word, or a feeling. It is what it is, yet it is rare for any two individuals to come away with exactly the same understanding of it. We believe our art defines us, yet it is we who define it. It is we who determine what it stands for and how it affects us. What may begin as nothing more than a therapeutic expression for the artist can somehow be transformed into a spectacle for others to immerse within.
Art is the ultimate expression of human philosophy. It asks questions for which there are no answers, it provides answers for which there are not yet questions. It shatters boundaries and it retreats to safety without providing any reason. Art exists and yet it has no quantifiable or logical purpose, other than to show us just how much we do not know. No matter how great our knowledge, no matter how infinite our wisdom, no matter how powerful we may be, art has the power to strip us naked and reveal our weakness for all to see. When we see ourselves through it, we are transparent and lacking, yet we are somehow strengthened by the fact that it shows us just how little of our total potential we have reached.
TANSTAAFL!
© 2004, J.S.Brown
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