Art

Art is a tricky subject these days because anything goes. If I defecate on a paper plate in some novel way and I call it art, then by definition it is art. And I might even get a museum show. And since my achievement is so remarkably novel it must be considered high art as opposed to pretty pictures which clearly are mere decoration…wall candy we could call that. Whatever we consider to be art, it must be admitted that art is a cultural Rorschach not an objective social product: what we consider to be Art tells us a great deal about ourselves, and tells us nothing at all about Art. 

Art is an intentional structuring of the imagination through the vehicle of the senses. In our troubled times of anomie the the arts attract the endeavor of lunatics and sociopaths because opportunity exists for aggrandizement in capturing naive imaginations. Much outrageous art (though it may even be fun) is the product of such of beings. There are individuals, reasonably sane, of various talents, who wish to find for themselves some importance. These artists often do very good work; but though art may be an avenue to some degree of status, even drugged out tramps will be issued an artistic license if they are persistent enough. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who can make a living with a box of paints, or a musical instrument, or a pen, is OK in my book whatever illusions they may labor under. And lastly there are those whom Art has called to herself. 

My theory: Art is coeval with the most distant emergence of tool making, monkey-like, progenitors; and as the curiosity of these progenitors expanded into the unseen connections between things Art was there to enable the invisible to enter a world of form. Delights that never before existed, and truths beyond the reach of ordinary communication: these I believe to be the historical domain of Art. And in St Thomas Aquinas’ “Summa Theologiae” you will find a description of the responsibility of the echelons of religious orders that exactly fits my understanding of the responsibility of the artist.

Bad Art 

Lots of folks don’t trust themselves 

To know bad art when they see it 

Well, you can always tell bad art

 

Because it needs an essay to hold it up 

And a crowd of boot-lickers and apologists 

To appreciate it .