I recognize that what Im going to write about is a sensitive subject to many people. But as one of my intentions for this blog is to have it made into a book as a type of journal that I can read and reminisce about in the years to come and then eventually have read by my children who want to learn what I was like at various stages of my life, I want a few more windows into my personal depth displayed here and there. I want more documentation somewhere, if not all here on my blog, of my core beliefs and how I sustained them in all aspects of my life. Even when it was hard. I want to be able to come back and read these beliefs when I or when someone near me needs to be buoyed up or needs clarification on what I believe. My feelings about art and the purpose of art are mingled with these core beliefs and the topic I want to communicate here.
Being a visual arts major and now teaching in the visual arts department, I have often come across the questions: what is art? and what is beauty? I have had teachers that love to debate this question with students on varying levels, and in my opinion, some being more successful than others. As a teacher that still has memories of what it was like to be a student fresh in my mind I recognize that every student learns in different ways and that every teacher teaches in a different way, its when the student connects with how the teacher is teaching that the information really sticks and makes an impact. I have had plenty of experiences where I connected with my teachers and plenty of where I didnt. With learning being the process of having your mind opened to new information and views, I have had teachers that debated and questioned every comment or view that their students dared enough to express in attempts of showing their students there are other ways of thinking. But I have never found that an atmosphere of contention was one conducive to learning. It was in those lectures that I turned off and didnt comment in the name of self preservation. (there were a few instances where I stood up for what I believed, and a few instances where I regret not standing stronger).
I found I actually listened to instructors that offered other opinions for consideration without saying that, on the spot, I had to sacrifice everything that I had believed up until then to do so. Teachers that encouraged letting me change my own perspective or at least develop an appreciation for another perspective after I have digested the information given. Teachers that convinced rather than forced.
As the main reason for writing this post as well as for use of comparison to help communicate my views, Il share with you a quote that I found left on top of the faculty copy machine.
"This is the purpose of art, to disturb you, to leave you uneasy with yourself and weary of the world. To undermine your sense of reality in order to make you reconsider all that you think you know. The finest art should shatter you emotionally, devastate you intellectually, leave you physically ill, fill you with loathing for those cultural traditions that bind us and weigh us down and drown us in a sea of conformity"
Reading this made me "physically ill".... then does that make it art? I dont know how the teacher was planning to use this quote in class or even if it reflected their own personal feelings of art but I hope other views of art were offered as well. You can almost touch the angst and contention you feel after reading that quote, its thick and heavy, and smothering. It reminds me of the lectures in class where the teacher instigated harsh verbal debates to try to force "other" views on their students and smother what beliefs they came to class with. But besides the strong wording making it sound like fact instead of opinion "This is of course...,"" The finest art should....", the verbs used in this particular definition of art: to disturb, make uneasy, to loath, to undermine, to devastate have never been synonymous with the idea of art in my mind, and never will be.
Now allow me to offer my opinion further, Im not saying that if you think differently you have to sacrifice your own beliefs to consider mine. I dont mean to offer these thoughts like a strong wind to force you to take off your coat of beliefs, because I know the harder I blow the tighter you will cling. I only hope to be like the sun whose warm rays suggest and then convince you take your coat off, yourself.
One of those moments where I as a student connected with one of my teachers' approaches to teaching oddly enough was on the syllabus day. The first day of school, the day every student thinks is optional because material that will show up on the test usually isnt discussed. But on this day I was inwardly struggling with the idea of how to articulate my feelings about what art and beauty are and mean to me, I was worried that this would be just another class in which I will have to stutter through my feelings on this topic and try to be convincing. When upon receiving my syllabus I was intrigued with seeing the 13th
Article of Faith of
my religion printed top and center (this was at BYU so not as shocking as you may think but still profound nonetheless). I knew those words well, I had memorized them when I was 12. I wondered how the teacher would discuss why he wanted us to read these words at the first of the semester... and not in a religion class, an art class.
"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul- We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things"
Now there are adjectives that I feel are synonymous with idea of art.
The class read the the Article of Faith and discussed not letting art be a vehicle to leading us away from these principals that we as Latter Day Saints are admonished to live by. Many artists and critics will agree that a motivation for creating art is for a form expression. As artists we need to think what are we expressing? If we are expressing something that we don't believe (even if we know it will be praised by select audiences) we aren't being honest, with ourselves and with our audiences. Our art is exactly that, OURS, and will be associated with us. By portraying something or purposely evoking a feeling in our art we are inviting others to connect those ideas and feelings with us as individuals. If we too often choose to depict who we aren't or don't want to be, then we eventually start connecting those ideas and feelings with ourselves as well, changing ourselves into that lie we were once telling.
This discussion fell in stride with my belief of what art and beauty are. Simply put, I believe that art should instruct, enlighten, inspire, and honor the glory of whom first gave the gift of creativity and creation.
One reason artists/students get caught in the deception of others and then themselves is the struggle for individuality and the desire to be unique in one way or another. What do your core beliefs say about individuals? My core beliefs are my religious beliefs. A few examples of our beliefs on individuality/uniqueness:
"Each of us is a unique creation of our Heavenly Father. We should increase those talents and gifts and use them to leverage our uniqueness"
James E. Faust (found here) “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” (See Matt. 10:29–30.)
Some think that being part of a religion is loosing yourself in conformity. But being part of something doesn't mean all involved will have the exactly same life experiences, think the same thoughts, have the same intellectual and physical strengths. Everyone will inevitably be unique, because they were created that way.
Ive seen many artists trade their own beliefs in order to depict a certain subject in their art, just so they can be told my someone else that they are unique. A high price, I say, and one that will keep needing to be paid. Yes it is a constant struggle/learning process to find ways of expressing your uniqueness without denying the core beliefs that other people have in common with you. The answer isnt in a quick fix. The quick fix in many circles is "shock value". Reactions are often the gage of success to many artists. Any reaction (even shock or horror) is counted as a point toward success. But such reactions are easier to evoke, take less work up front for the most bang afterwards. While generating admiration, respect, and enlightenment in the minds of your viewers takes more work. Hours of perfecting your medium and imagery, taking the medium to its limits to portray your imagery more accurately. If you want to enlighten your audience you must live to be worthy of enlightenment. Enlightenment on how to use your medium, and how better to portray something accurately than if you know from experience.
Im not saying that all art has to be happy go lucky, portraying a false sense of everything is beautiful and perfect all the time. I do we believe that "we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things". But I also believe such expressions can be handled without going against your beliefs. A section of this
talk by Neal a. Maxwell describes what I want to say more clearly:
"For many years now—in literature, film, and music—we have witnessed increasing expressions of a profound sense of what has come to be called existential despair, a hopelessness beyond hope. Granted, the human scene also includes many individuals who go happily about life’s labors untouched by these feelings. But the holocausts and the wars have taken their terrible toll of hope among twentieth-century man. Said one eminent scientist, “The most poignant problem of modern life is probably man’s feeling that life has lost its significance, … [a] view … no longer limited to the philosophical or literary avant garde. It is spreading to all social and economic groups and affects all manifestations of life.” (Rene Dubos, So Human an Animal [New York: Scribners, 1968], pp. 14–15.)
One need not question either the reluctance or the sincerity with which some despairing individuals have come to such wrong conclusions. In fact, one feels compassion and desires to reach out to them in genuine entreaty!
One recent television drama, in its closing scene in a cemetery, conveyed well this confusion and purposelessness, as one character lamented poignantly:
“Are all men’s lives … broken, tumultuous, agonized and unromantic, punctuated by screams, imbecilities, agonies and death? Who knows? … I don’t know. … Why can’t people have what they want? The things were all there to content everybody, yet everybody got the wrong thing. I don’t know. It’s beyond me. It’s all a darkness.” (“The Good Soldier,” a dramatization of the novel by Ford Madox Ford.)
But such poignancy of view is no guarantee of the accuracy of the view. Moreover, in human affairs, erroneous and unchallenged assertions sometimes assume an undeserved aura of truth. While a response to this hopelessness may not create conviction in disbelievers, it can bolster believers against the silent erosion of their own convictions."
I personally, may never feel that my artwork is completely unique or that I have stretched my art mediums to their full potential or even ever fully portray my imagery as accurately as I desire to, but I will never stop trying to achieve these things. And more, achieve them without loosing my core beliefs and faith along the way. I will continue striving to make my artwork enlighten, strengthen, instruct, and honor my Heavenly Father who has given me my gifts. I hope that one day my art can be referred to as virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy.
This is also a very great talk given by Neil A. Maxwell-
