Art can be defined as "the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, producing works to be appreciated greatly for their beauty or emotional power." In other words, art is an attempt at capturing and reproducing the essence of humanity, the wonder of emotion. If this is the case, there can be no such thing as bad art; there is only art and not art. This is the reason why seemingly childish abstract pieces are regarded as remarkable works of art, and why works of great visual quality are simply aesthetic. The impressive piece will fade away with each new trend, but the ones that stick with us forever are timeless because they reflect the human experience. True art speaks to the soul, not the eyes or ears. We will be quick to stare in awe at the impressively technically detailed work, while looking over a simple sculpture or painting or song or poem and saying we could have done it.
But that's the thing.
We didn't do it.
Anyone can learn how to paint. Anyone can learn how to draw and write and play an instrument and compose music and sculpt and dance and act and sing. There is value in talent and skill, but infinitely more lies in the message, the meaning, the emotion. The connection between the art and the human. This simply cannot be taught.
Anything else in comparison is just bright and shiny scrap metal, entertaining to look at and play with but ultimately utterly meaningless. That is, unless used to play a role in something bigger. Every so often there is a masterpiece, an instance when the learned and the unteachable are put together and the product is something that not only captivates the world but speaks to it. This is what sets apart the classical music, the great literature, the operas and plays and ballets. These are the Beethovens, the Mozarts, the Shakespeares and Hemingways, the van Goghs, the Michelangelos and da Vinci's and Vivaldis and Poes and Dickinsons.
Each of these people and numerous others were not only masters of their craft but also human beings who hurt and laughed and wept and lost and felt. They understood the mystery of our shared experience as inhabitants of this universe better than most, which allowed them to contribute their own attempts at reproducing it for the rest of us. Hemingway once said that in order to write about life one must first live it. Nietzsche said that you must have chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.
This is the secret to art; no human is without chaos. What we feel unites us.
This is true beauty.
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rooftop
Randomhere's to the feelings we never expressed, the memories that haunt us. there's something about a rooftop at night that brings out our truest words.
