--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > The arts are an especially rich source of sweet suffering. Or > > > > maybe I'm listening to too much opera, and seeing too > > > > many heavy movies. But artists seem to revel in mixing beauty > > > > and pain. I figured that was not just an artist's trick, but > > > > a reflection of life. > > > > > > Something I've always wondered about: What happens to > > > art in a (hypothetical) Age of Enlightenment? > > > > > > Can you take pain and suffering and struggle out of > > > the mixture and have art just be about joy? > > > > I just uploaded 4 of my pieces, done over the last 25 years, into > > the Photos section under miscellaneous. Other than the mandala, > > which is colored pencil and metallic ink on paper, the others are > > montages from photos of carved and colored wood pieces, ranging in > > size from about a foot square to about 3.5 feet by 10 inches. Art > > reflects the pysche and interest of the artist. > > The artists I support as "mini-patron" are all > completely positive. They don't buy into the > "art is suffering" crap, and it doesn't appear > in their work. They manage to sell a lot of it, > so t'would seem that there are a lot of art > buyers out there who don't buy into the > suffering crap, either.
Or a lot of people (including, perhaps, the artists themselves) who are afraid of confronting suffering, who want their "art" to be nice and comfortable and comforting. Nobody said "art is suffering," of course. But it would be incredibly puerile to suggest that much of the world's greatest art does not *deal* with suffering and struggle and pain. In many if not most cases, great art finds a way to transform or transcend the suffering it deals with, to make it positive; that's why it's so compelling. There's nothing wrong with "positive" art that does not deal with suffering, that aims only to uplift, as long as its artistic value is high. But a steady diet thereof, it seems to me, would be deadening. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
