A friend of
mine, Kay Lorbecki, who frequently sends me comments on my blogs, sent me
something that I would like to share.
She recognizes that my constant question in my blogs is “what is art?” And those of you in the arts recognize that
that question has been asked time and time again, and to date, and to arts
credit and to the credit of those involved in the arts, it has not been pinned
down to a solid, unmovable concrete answer.
The concept of art, does change with the times.
My need to
maintain the “life” in art is what my blog is all about. The life in my own work and the life in the
work that others who call themselves artists do. Kay is an artist. She said she understands art as follows:
Joseph
Conrad interesting as it pertains to “what is art.”
Written in 1957, the title of
the work is offensive, but the thoughts contained within are worth a look.
I am captivated by this line, “To
arrest, for the space of a breath, the hands busy about the work of
the earth, and compel men
entranced by the sight of distant goals to glance for a moment at the
surrounding vision of form and
color, of sunshine and shadows: to make them pause for a look,
for a sigh, for a smile—such is
the aim, difficult and evanescent, and reserved only for a few to achieve.”
This applies to my goal
to make people stop and not just glance at my work but really see it and the
world it conveys.
Kay send me
the entire preface and I found the article rich in understanding. I personally like two sections and I will
quote them here with my comments injected into them – by doing this you can see
how I read and how I take things apart when I read and think about them – it is
complex and yes one not only needs to think when they read this, I told Kay it
was thick reading but beautiful, but one also needs to inject oneself into the
reading and ask oneself just how is it that I understand that statement. So here goes:
“Art itself
may be defined as a single-minded,” I understand single-minded as the artist
herself, “attempt to render the highest kind of justice to the visible
universe, by bringing to light the truth, maniforld and one, underlying its
every aspect.” Ok, I have trouble with
that sentence because I hold the position that other and my higher power, the
truth of an object depends on the beholder, thinking about and looking at an
object.
Here is the
part I love, Conrad seems to understand truth as life. “It is an attempt to find in its forms, in
its colors, in its light, in its shadows, in the aspect of matter and in the
facts of life what of each is fundamental, what is enduring and essential –
their one illuminating and convincing quality – the very truth of their
existence.”
Art is
illuminating the quality, the truth of existence. Wonderful.
Yes, yes, yes.
