What is art? for me…
Some days ago I was chatting with a friend of mine, I don’t remember for which argument he wrote me abruptly: “u are not an artist so u can’t undestand”.
That made me think about the word Art: what is art for me, how do i define art, what is art for common people.
The dictionary tells me art is: the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects; indeed that is a very general answer, too much general to be understandable.
So I researched in myself what means art for me, I can consider myself a musician, I have been playing instruments from when i was 7, piano, guitar, and so on..
Is music considered art too? and what else can be considered art?
I recognize I have a very pale concept of art, my idea of art is rather an water color painting rather than an acrilic one. My art is fluid and borderless, I’ve never spent time thinking about the meaning of art for me, but it was a definitely interesting experience.
Art for me is not about creating something good looking, that one I call skill, not art, art is a non-verbal communication between beings. It is well known that music can transmit emotions, also painting, or pictures, or whatever…art for me is the way we exchange informations about feelings.
Sometime it is easy to misunderstand, if a painter has grown with different values than the viewer, it is very easy that the content would be partially misunderstood, however I am confident that the true deep content will be not.
Art is the pressure in the soul that bring all the beings to exchange feelings, AND the essence of being itself. For me, art, can be very common, most of the time we are not receptive about that, too busy thinking about ourselves, how we look, how much money we have, if we should buy that nice jacket or not. Many person think that art is about dressing properly, or about seeing nice people, or about selling their artworks. Well I do not, if an artwork tells everyone the same feelings, then is not an artwork, it is not sharing any feelings but it is imposing them. Beside that, different moment can lead to different feelings exchanged, if I listen to music when I am happy, I will get different feelings than if I listen when I am sad.
It happened to me many times that I saw a painting, and I was not impressed at all, seeing it in a later moment instead was a rush of feelings. What did it change in me? nothing. I was just not receptive the first time, while I was totally open the second time. I dare to say that many people have never seen art, they feel pressured to see beauty, or just want to get involved into art, but they don’t feel anything, they are waterproof to any feeling which could be transmitted, thus they are chasing a shadow that is not true.
For me art is the music, painting, sculpture, picture, poetry, writing etc etc which can share the artist feelings, if I don’t feel anything, if I can’t see the point, if our values are too different for me to understand, I will just pass over. I’ve seen many clever works, clever and more clever, sharing no feelings, designed nicely, looking greatly, but lacking soul. Those are nice objects to have in home, maybe in office, to impress colleagues, or friends, but not something to learn anything from. They are made only of matter, and they are like a book, with no writing inside. Nice to put on a shell, but can’t be really called a book.
An hunting cat, is much more art than those, he will hunt and share is inner essence, his inner being. An hunting cat doesn’t show the same feelings we have, yet he can transfer us his feelings, simple, maybe brutal, but part of the inner essence of being a cat. Those art can’t lie, those art are immediate like a blast in the night, is not needed to think to find a reason, is not needed to think to understand, everything is passed directly from one being to the other. No misunderstandings, no excessive side work, no other useless informations that intoxicate and deceive. Nothing else than the synthesis of what needs to be shared.
Art is the shout of a soul to another soul who wants to listen; many don’t want to listen, and many can’t listen in that moment. Is this a reason to stop shouting? No, art can sometime fix the information on matter, so that stays there long enough for people to became receptive and listen. Looking at a painting and knowing what the painter felt in the moment he painted; here, that is art. The more informations the painter is able to transmit: the better the artwork is, the clearer, sharper, crystalline and without overwork and without excessive, the best for me. Art is not something that can be chased, nor something that can be found or forced; art is free, comes and goes without reason.
True art is touching each other soul not understanding how could it have happened.
