Post 22 – Why Art?
Posted on | December 29, 2009 | 6 Comments
I know people who would rather not be challenged in their lives. They prefer a comfortable job and, as my friend and mentor Pat O’Bryan calls it, a McLife. It’s valid. It has confuses me, but, as the philosopher said, confusion is a very high state and understanding is the booby prize, so I don’t need to understand it, I just need to accept it.
It’s valid, but it’s not for me and never has been. I’ve held jobs often in my life, but always considered them a way to support my habit of creating art. (An often very bad habit, I assure you, much like smoking, but without all the ashes and nicotine stains.) I have not yet found the proper balance between work, money and freedom. Lately I’ve been working ten to twelve hours a day almost seven days a week in order to make it all come together, in order to create something worthy of society and worthy of myself, looking for that moment when “it” starts to take care of itself and I can go see plays in London’s West End for a week or two, then blithely write my heart out.
I have also long been amazed (I first started noticing it when I was in junior high school) at many American’s pride in their own ignorance. They want to be ignorant, and distrust those who aren’t. I don’t say all Americans, or any one class of Americans, but I see it as a very large portion of my fellow citizens. Again, it confuses me. I am so passionate about wanting to know everything about everything, I don’t get people who don’t want to know anything about anything.
Again, I suppose, it’s valid. Most of us have come from peasant stock, and the way to survive as a peasant is to lay low, not be noticed and do as you’re told. That’s what you do, and that’s what you teach your children. I absolutely come from peasant stock, so it would seem that I should also want to lay low, but I also come from parents who questioned, examined and wanted to shake things up, so I inherited some of that, too. I like to cause ripples. (I do it nicely, of course. Usually.) One of the best ways to cause ripples, to question, to shake things up, is through art. With art, it can be done either didactically or subtly. I’ve used both. (Yes, believe it or not, I can be subtle.) Subtlety usually works better.
There will always be people who are bosses and always be people who are employees. How could we have bridges and power stations and the West End theatres and the Internet itself if that weren’t so? However, and I’ve said this before, I think that art, the creation of it and the consumption of it in all of it’s messy iterations, is what makes a society live, thrive. The bridges and power stations and theatres are just the trappings, the tools needed for society to function and survive. In order for it to thrive, there is art.
In this day of mass media, the Internet, social networking, etc., the peasants have been given the keys to the castle in a way not ever seen in history.
Only some of them (us) will accept the keys. This is valid. I want my own set.
~Geoff Hoff
Co-author of the how-to guide On Writing a Short Story.
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December 29th, 2009 @ 2:40 pm
Love your post today. I share you passion of wanting to know about everything. I love to read and I’m surprised how many folks don’t read anything but the newspaper. (heaven forbid)
I’m a college graduate (big deal)… but my “real” education has come from books… after the fact. And, the internet has expanded my opportunities to learn.
I love the fact I can jump out of bed at 2:00 in the morning and look up the Battle Of Bunker Hill.
I never have thought about “art” holding things together. I would rather say that “creativity” is what makes the world go round… what ever form it takes. I love spending my time there.
.-= Kathy – Insightful Nana´s last blog ..Sock Monkeys – Americana Folk Art =-.
December 29th, 2009 @ 3:21 pm
I agree that it is art that holds things together, even subtle art.
My mother was not a mover and shaker, anything but. That did not keep her from being an artist. A subtle artist.
When she read to us it was an adventure, she could compete with any professional story teller.
When she preserved bottle after bottle of peaches, pears and apricots it was art. They were beautiful to behold and melted in you mouth, a sought after treat in the middle of winter.
My mother sewed clothing for 6 daughters. We were an Easter parade every Sunday.
Yes, there is danger in living the McLife- and there are dangerous movers and shakers. They seem to manage to meet.
Ahhh art our saving grace.
Sheila
.-= Sheila Atwood´s last blog ..Emails Optin- AWeber Does It Again =-.
December 30th, 2009 @ 9:29 am
Hi Geoff,
Great post! We are all artists in our own way. Some just don’t recognize their own creations. We are all created to create and that’s what makes this wonderful world go around
.-= Martha Giffen´s last blog ..Product Creation with Pat O’Bryan =-.
December 30th, 2009 @ 9:43 am
Kathy and Sheila, I had no idea you two were sisters! I’m very pleased you both enjoyed the post. I would also have loved to meet your mother. I suspect she and my mother would have gotten along famously. My mom knitted and weaved, but hated sewing. She made lots of scarves and hats, but when it came to sweaters, she’d knit them, then never get around to sewing the pieces together. When she died, there were, perhaps, twenty such sweaters in a big hamper, just waiting to be useful.
Yes, Martha, I also think we are all artists, and any work can be raised to the level of art. That’s why I’m so confused by people who insist on staying small. It makes me sad, but it is, so it must be accepted.
January 5th, 2010 @ 3:47 am
Great post Geoff. Coming from depression era parents, and grandparents who raised children during the depression, getting a job and working for someone else was expected. But also, in both sides of my family, were generations of artists -musicians, composers, and inventors that somehow flowed into me. When you’re an artist, it’s like you know things are different. You know that you can’t accept what is told to you to be the truth. Artists have to discover truth for themselves, by going through the process of their creativity. It’s always a fine balance of working to support your art, being creative to support your soul. Somehow, I still believe that one can make a living with their art. So, here’s my thought – keep trucking Geoff, because I know if anyone can do it, you can!
January 5th, 2010 @ 9:25 am