What Is Art?

I'm very prejudiced.  I don't think all "art"  is art.  My friends will (generously) put up with my vociferous  bashing when I see a piece that is supposed to be "art" but is really ripping off the viewer, the person who may have commissioned it, and those of us who actually work at our craft.

So what is art?  And what should it do?  This is a question that has consumed many dinners.  My husband's concise response is that art does three things:

* Art nurtures the soul.
* Art shelters the soul.
* Art interests the soul.

That's it.  And that's a lot.  Does it need to do all three at once?  In other words, as an example, can art only interest the soul without sheltering or nurturing it?  I'm not sure, but I don't think so.  There is something about the arrangement of colour, form, design, texture, that attracts us and actually makes us pause to imbibe.  Hence, it does all three if even for a second or two.  Our soul becomes attached, if even in a small way, to what we view, smell, see or hear.  And that attachment becomes a union.  We have what Martin Buber might describe as an "I-Thou" relationship with the creator and with the environment that we are sharing.

So next time you are out and something catches you, ask if that thing of beauty is nurturing your soul, sheltering your soul and interesting your soul.

To Create is an Act of Love

My husband is a great artist and a great philosopher and a great architect.  This is actually one of his writings from March 2009.  It well describes why we create.

"A philosopher told me once that God understood the world because He made it.  While forming the whole He guided all the parts into their separate identities, their places.  The identity of each part became realized by how each formed a part of the whole.

God understood the world because He gave each part existence with respect to Himself and with respect to the whole.  In order to create, He had to devote a piece, a chard of Himself, in order to bring each piece its meaning as separate from the void.  By surrendering a chard that diminished Him but rendered a creation, He gave love.  With love, all acts of creation deepen the Creator.  His understanding of the world was deepened by the making of it.  By giving up parts of Himself without limitation to the life of the parts, He gained love of the world.

Being created, I must yearn to understand my place and my Father's place.  I must do some measure of the work of my Father, by creating, by building.  To begin to understand the world I must re-make a part of it.  I must disassemble and re-assemble a part of the work/mind of God.  In making, I allow parts of myself to align alongside those chards of God.  To join my creation with those of God I must commit parts of myself, my chards to the creation.  I give an irredeemable chard tin order to bring each piece its meaning and separate it from the void.  By undertaking the challenge to build with love, I have surrendered to the job of opening my soul.  Then, from my soul, lies the chard of the divine where God and I dwell together. "