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Why art?
See also:  -[The Span of the Imagination]-
            [Action Painting (art technique)`

Why art?

It is not ironic that in the hyper-real, elctronically-connected,
pod-cast, space stations in orbit, etc that we seek:

   The simple.
   The poetic.
   The spiritual.
   The quiet.

It is this need to "simplify, simplify" as Emerson reminded
the people of his own century, that *drives* us to escape.

Humans are less different from other creatures than they
might suppose. That thing that we call the "tribal instinct"
is part and parcel to our very being. And of course we might
(as they did in the so-called "Romantic Period" in history)
try to see only the beauty of the world around us, to try
and shut out all of the negativism. But in reality, it is
the entirity of both the plus and the minus that give us
the world around us. Without shadow, we can not appreciate
the light.

And there are times when we are angry and frustrated when
we need that negative - we need to see those gashing marks
of a Motherwell "Spanish Republic" or Picasso's "Guernika".

And we need those crashing cords of Beethoven's 8th symphony
-- a muddle of madness that he alone could comprehend - if
even that. 

And i do not by any means want to limit my discussion (or
the ideas that these words might evoke in you) to the 
so-called "classical" or "culturally enlightened" works
of art (in all of its forms). 

   the 9/11 building experience in Second Life

   those yells and screams in Mingus' work 

   the buddhist monk setting himself on fire in Viet Nam

and so forth. (such a simple phrase).

For we ARE embedded in the world. And despite everything
else, we ARE involved in the crag, the part of the main
that is the world.

That.

That's what art is all about.

And as (i hope) you begin to explore it, and all of its
mysteries and motivations - that you won't be like me
when so many years ago and i "had it made" and went 
into a museum of modern art and looked around and left
almost immediately thinking:

   Why they have nothing good at all!

Since to me (as to many of us) REAL art is soemthing
that looks nice, that's easy to understand, that
looks like it took a long time to make, and most
importantly of all ISN'T a tornao.

  Toto, i have terribl news for you.
  We're still in KANSAS!!!!

It is the journey that refines and extends the hero.
Even if the hero is just some one who has one of 
those little "9 to 5" jobs and wears a litle badge
with their name on it. It is the DREAm of the journey
and its exploration that transforms the ordinary 
person into something magical.

It is in every thing in the universe. The problem
with humans is that they only very rarely keep
looking for it after they "mature". Or as most
people who've stopped long ago looking tell
them:
       Oh, grow up!


           
         "Square with eleven dots"

See also:  -[The Ten Bamboo Studio]- (Chinese art)