So you've set me to thinking. Again. What is art? We do mean something definite when we achieve this thing called art; something special and different from our everyday expressions and output. When it rises to a certain level, it becomes in our minds and hearts, art. And it is recognizable by others.
I'm thinking of Leonard Schlain and his explanation of the way profound art was an intellectual advancement in culture, a pre-realization of new truth. I'm thinking of the way engineers and computer programmers feel when they create structure that transcends the mechanical and pragmatic needs of the day, and produces in its uniformity, regularity, logic and simplicity that same artistic feeling. Good art is rare. I suppose that's part of the definition of the term - rare excellence. Art, as opposed to mere craftsmanship, possesses some intellectual tickle to a quality brain. > "There is a great hunger for beauty in our world, a hunger that our popular > art fails to recognize and our serious art often defies." > > "[O]ur human need for beauty is not simply a redundant addition to the list > of human appetites. It is not something that we could lack and still be > fulfilled as people. It is a need arising from our metaphysical condition as > free individuals, seeking our place in an objective world." The desert sky at night, my rose garden, my daughter's smile. I see beauty all around, art is an attempt to capture and hold and share the intrinsic beauty of existence; as a response to the beauty experience, a creative desire arises naturally. It is a subjective response to objective beauty, a metaphysical response indeed. And perhaps the real reason so little beauty is created by popular art in our world, is that so little is perceived. The soul of humanity deadened by so much crap. Depending on our esthetic sensibility, Beauty has substantial value to us. > Pirsig correctly pointed out that value is not centered in either the > subject or the object but transcends both. This is as meaningful a clue as > any to the true nature of Beauty. > > To answer Platt's question, "Where does beauty come from?", it comes from > our sensibility to Value. Specifically, it is our realization that the > substantive essence of our reality is beyond the finite world of existence. > Man's exquisite sense of symmetry, stability, and goodness is the value of > the essential Source from which he is estranged. The awe and rapture we > feel when we are in harmony with this Essence is imparted to the discrete > objects and events which manifest the uncreated source in our experience. > This, I submit to you, is what we sense as Beauty. > > Respectfully, > Ham > > I like that Ham; I think I would only dispute one small part. For myself, anyway, beauty is not for me a realization of a substantive essence beyond our finite world of existence. Rather the opposite. It is the realization of an infinite harmony within my finite world of experience. Right where I live, in this moment. (Well, not THIS moment, but you know what I mean) J Carl > > -- ------------ Doing Good IS Being ------------ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
