What is art even for?
Quite simply, relationships
People often ask;
What is art? or… What is art for? My answer, at least today:
Relationships… and so much more - so much more than pretty things.
Join me as I delve into what art is, what it can offer and why you need it more than that latte. So, let’s jump in and learn about what art — is — for.
I ran across a young man playing his cello in a London park. I painted that scene, part of my series about how the world needs more empathy and how we identify with things around us. A musician has a special relationship with their instrument and while playing can feel as though their identity is blended with, in this case the cello. When this happens there can be a tremendous synergism. Ok, that’s easy enough to see, you can imagine that.
Now, look closely at the image below - the structure of this cello I painted it, is exactly as it was - a very unusual design, an electric cello. Notice the negative space (the non structural areas) within both the cello and the rest of the composition. Next, think about the space between the notes of a song. Without that empty musical space being just right the song would be really different. Here is a big point - the world around us also has that space - but I don’t mean around physical things - we find it around experiences - a quality of space that brings a certain ‘essence’ to not just objects but how we experience them. It’s a bit like a memory - try to remember the feeling you had when you first rode a bicycle - that feeling is the essence of that moment - that is what I’m calling the quality of the mental space in your head that surrounds that experience. That is where the glow of the sunset lives in your mind and the spark in the eye of your lover or the anticipation on your dog’s face exists. Ok, so what does this have to do with art?
Stay with me just a bit longer and try this:
Step one - on your road to living in this luscious space. To experience this amazing essence that life has to offer more often, and it is offering all the time - you need to practice something - you need to exercise your mind a bit so you can be more open and receptive. You need more space - mental space that you create for these important moments to occur. So, step one is - work at being open - notice things, be receptive and begin to really appreciate these moments. To do this, shut off the music, close the book and observe, slow down your mind and your sight and your thoughts and focus, on someone or thing or experience. Sounds easy, right? Keep going. There will be more to this.
Step two - on your road to realizing the value of art. As you walk around practicing being more open, more receptive, noticing the world, you begin to have relationships with the world around you in this new and receptive way. The smile on the face of your neighbor, the bagger at the grocery store that was so helpful, the person that made your coffee or poured your beer - you feel that your simple interactions with things and people in the world can deepen and enrich your sense of what it means to be alive. No? You aren’t there yet? Ok, we will get you there - that’s why, for today - for this discussion - this is what art is all about. A way to practice Step one and Step two at the same time.
Art offers you a relationship, be it visual art or performance art like dance, music, theater, cinema or literary or culinary arts, etc. It allows you to practice, to experience something outside yourself. Take the moment in which it presents itself to you and simply be open to it - ask what is it that is being offered and how it is intended - who is the creator, what have they made - are you moved, inspired, taken to a place that changes the way you perceive others or yourself? Try to find something within the art that touches you in any way at all. It doesn't matter if it's a good feeling or a bad feeling. Interact with that feeling, have a dialogue with that moment that you are moved. Does it bring up a memory? An emotion? A powerful feeling or in someway is it simply lovely like music or beautiful color. Explore it and answer any question it brings up. Be thankful for its presence and silently or outwardly give thanks. When approached in this way -Art offers you a doorway to enter a relationship.
The next time you experience Art of any kind try to see it in this new way - as an offer of an opportunity to practice being open, receptive and appreciative - sink into that idea for just a moment and keep reading.
Try to follow this thread - you meet and fall in love with someone you feel wonderfully in-tune with and wonder how this happened so fast. Perhaps it was at your morning coffee break and this person was just so amazing, such an incredible person, and you were in love before noon. Or maybe it was a book or a movie or a party. Hopefully you have felt this amazing emotion of sudden and incredible attraction - but how does this happen? I think the answer lies in our ability to be open and receptive and appreciative. To be fully alive we need to be able to experiences what the present offers to us - this is where we can feel that sudden and inexplicable fulfillment.
When you have practiced a long while at ‘noticing, being open and receptive’ you may find yourself falling in love more times than you can count.
Do two things now; first read the poem, Aimless Love, by Billy Collins and hear him read it here: https://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/aimless-love-7641
Next, try to think of a time when something you ran across in your day made you stop and just stare - perhaps at the beauty of a sunset. In that moment you were receptive and you opened to the opportunity - you accepted. Even if for a few seconds you established a relationship in which something was offered to you and you accepted it and you experienced joy. How wonderful life is when we have more of these free and beautiful moments. If you can practice this - seeing more of the world around you as an offering then you have the opportunity to receive, appreciate and feel this joy.
The arts - they are all about offering you this experience - this offer to practice - this relationship. Go practice! Go fall in love.
You can see more of my art and writings at dennisbakerart.net. Meanwhile, I will go paint, read, walk my dog and come back here now and then to tell you what I’ve found.
