ART QUEST ESSAY FOUR – ART ASKS, SCIENCE ANSWERS

In the previous essay, I equated the creative energy as being very similar to the energy of a child at play.  The kind of uninhibited, spontaneous play that exalts in the passion and freedom of physical, mental and spiritual freedom (lots of yelling and laughter probably doesn’t hurt).  Please note, I have resisted the temptation to try to specifically define creativity (definition is an intellectual process at best), and have satisfied myself with merely illustrating creativity in action.  I have a hunch it is similar to the Supreme Court Justice who once observed that it seemed to be very difficult to precisely define pornography, but most of us can pretty easily recognize it when we see it.  Unfortunately, for the law, precise definitions are important, but as artists, hair splitting will get us nowhere.

I also mentioned that as adults, we attempt to learn to be artists, and we hope to learn the creative process.  Although I taught art for well over thirty years, I would like to suggest that we would accomplish more if we worked at discovering instead of learning.  The two words are quite different.  Discovery is an active process, engaged in inquisitively, while learning is often the result of someone else presenting you with what they feel you should know. 

We should be working upon discovering our former childlike joy at giving sound, form, and substance to our inner dreams, but unfortunately, if you visit the average adult arts class you won’t encounter much joyful, active, noisy creativity.  Behaviorally, the class will probably appear more similar to a tenth grade civics class than to a second grade recess.

Something to consider.  Throughout history, we can observe that there have been two elements present in virtually every culture that the archeologists have uncovered - visual art and spirituality (religion).  Not only are they always present, they are almost always closely linked, and often the bond is unbreakable.  Almost all art from the past has strong ties to a religious/spiritual/divine viewpoint, and conversely, much of what we know about historic religious belief comes from their art.  In all likelihood, it was not just visual art but also dance, song and storytelling, but those arts don’t always pass down through time as well as the visual.

There is an interesting possibility that our need to express ourselves spiritually as well as artistically may indeed come out of the same human framework or desire - they may well be different aspects or projections of the same primal force in human nature.  Both exist to provide symbolic and broad views of the mysteries and powers that lie all around us, and both attempt to forge links that help us understand the non-understandable.  They provide a bridge between the sacred and profane.  Unlike science which must be based upon a careful examination of the facts and data available, art and faith leap beyond science’s reach, and through the use of imagination and a connection to the spiritual (are they really different?) propel us into and through the unknown. 

The function of science has always been to answer questions.  It collects verifiable data, subjects it to analysis, and then uses that process to explain and quantify our world.  It is not a collection of “maybes”, or “I wonders”, but information and knowledge that we can use in a practical and efficient manner.  Art, on the other hand, has always dealt with the mystical, and specializes in asking questions and pointing in new and perhaps improbable directions.  If my art offers any answers at all, it tells you what I am thinking about, what is fearful or mystical, what puzzles me and what makes my pulse race and my heart pound.  Art’s voice is the sound of the spirit and the soul made audible.

To paraphrase the above paragraph, Science answers questions, Art asks questions.  We will return to this concept several times in later essays.

In the past hundred years, art has moved strongly in the direction of self-expression and self-fulfillment, and towards portraying the artist as a unique individual, and at the same time, shed most of its links with obvious, monotheistic religion.  Personal creativity has become a widely held value in our culture, and the creative artist personifies that value.  It is one of the few opportunities most of us will have to consciously and with full awareness conceive, develop and to present to the world a creative and unique gift.  The production of art allows you to give a small piece of your soul to people who otherwise might not even know you exist.  You have created that which never was, and, unlike your job or your hobbies, that creation could only have come from you, nobody else could have taken your place.  If it weren’t for you, your art would never have been born, and now you have contributed to your posterity.  Life is short, art is long.  What will you give to eternity?

I welcome any comments, suggestions or criticisms you may have about my writing, Feel free to leave comments or e-mail me: bobsouvorin@mindspring.com

 

 

 

#2 – ART QUEST

When I was a kid there was a pastry and coffee shop called Mayfair Doughnuts, and on the roof of that restaurant was a large sign that read:

As you wander on through life, brother,

Whatever be your goal

Keep your eye upon the doughnut

And not upon the hole.

That may work if you are on a quest to locate a donut shop, which of course was Mayfair’s goal.  However, many years ago, before the first do-nut was invented, any pastry chef who merely shaped and fried lumps of dough was not destined to make the great discovery, because as far as donuts are concerned, the hole is everything.  Without it, there are no doughnuts, just sweet pastry blobs.  Focusing upon what you already know, may help you achieve what you already know, but it isn’t always a good way to access and play with what you don’t know.

To invent the doughnut (as well as to creatively engage in art) one must sometimes not just look at what is, but at what is not, or maybe what might be, could be, or never will be.  Art deals with possibilities, not probabilities, and does not provide safe answers, but asks provocative questions.  An artist does not look carefully to confirm an already known truth, but casts his eye widely to discover overlooked possibilities.

In life, keeping your eye upon the doughnut tells you lots about what doughnuts are.  You can study doughnuts, analyze their texture, surface, glazes and chemical composition.  You can measure them, weigh them, and calculate their mass and their specific gravity.  If you are successful, really successful, in your analysis and inspection, you will be ready to do one thing very well - you will be ready to make your own doughnut.  This will have nothing to do with being an artist, and everything to do with being a successful pastry chef. 

Mastering skills, techniques and procedures, teaches proficiency, not creativity.

You see, art is not about duplicating or reproducing reality, but rather it is about alluding to and interpreting reality.  An artist has no need to be an expert about her subject; she needs to have access to her sense of wonder and whimsy.  Agnes De Ville said, “Life is a form of not being sure, not knowing what (is) next or how.  The moment you know how, you begin to die a little.  The artist never entirely knows.  We guess.  We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.”  I don’t think Ms De Ville spent much time analyzing how art or doughnuts are made.

An artist does not study the object to become an expert, but the artist observes and wonders about the object, not with the intent to know it as an expert, but to relate to it as a friend.  The artist is is more involved with intimate relationships, than with knowledge.  Whether the object is a landscape, a person, a still life or an abstraction (and yes, even a doughnut), the artist tries to understand how that object exists.  How it exists on its own, with its environment, and also its relationship to the artist.  The artist tries to understand more than what the object is, this is also about what the object isn’t, what the objects has to show us, and what the object is concealing.  Art is always involved in mystery, and it simultaneously attempts to solve the mystery and create more mystery. 

Art doesn’t look at subjects, it looks through them.  To do that, the artist would much rather keep his eye upon the hole - that is the way of artists.

I will have another essay posted in a week or so, but in the meantime, please leave comments or reactions – I will try to always respond.  If you don’t want to respond by posting, feel free to e-mail:

bobsouvorin@mindspring.com