I believe that “Art” arose as a way to communicate between
people. The Neanderthals created
fantastic works of “Art” as a way of communicating stories to each other and we the H. sapiens managed to continue to use their
communication tools.
We as humans all the way back to the Neanderthals have
created ways and tools to communicate with each other. I do believe that “Art” is one of the
earliest forms of communication along with pointing and grunting. What real difference
is there between using a stick to scratch a map/figure/animal form in the dirt
to using a paint brush or Wacom tablet stylus and color?
It’s all just an attempt to communicate with each other. “Art” as a communication tool sometimes does
not work as good as the written word. So we tend to clutter up our first
viewing of “Art” with all types of personal experiences that the creator of the
“Art” may or may not have had. This is not a bad thing since it causes certain “Art”
to speak to us in ways that we never expected. Beethoven's 9th, Sergeants’ Madame X and other
works struck cords in my soul that still reverberate 40 years later.
Can I tell
you why these works of “Art” and others had such a profound effect on me? Not
really. Sometimes I know that the "Art" work just touches our soul and grabs us by
the throat , we can write and talk ourselves to death over it (as I did in college)
but there will just never be an true understanding of the power of the “Art” on
our physic.
This is why I create “Art”, to exorcise myself of my most
powerful feelings (anger, want, nightmares, lust, etc.) and get them out there for
others to see and interact with. The
basic human need to connect and communicate with others is something that we
are all born with. Some of us are truly gifted with the talent of making
music, using words, painting, and drawing to exorcise our self’s of personal truths/feelings
and use it to communicate with others.
Working with others to communicate about my "Art" creations is most fascinating. Everyone sees something different based on their life experiences. The real
understanding that both the "Art" creator and the viewer is that sometimes our “Art” of communication
has more than one truth. The creator and the viewer each have their own personal
experiences that they are both trying to use to understand the “Art” object and
resolve into a personal truth that has importance to both of them. The best of us creators manage to use their talent to communicate with more force than others. Ernest Hemingway, Frank Lloyd Wright and others had this talent.
Me? I'm just trying to get better at my communications with practice and yet more practice. There will never be an end point, since its almost impossible to communicate perfectly.
“Art” is just a cry in the darkness for a truly meaningful communication
with both the self and the audience.
