The Point Of Art

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The Point of Art varies if you are doing it, living it, or just observing others who do.

I drove five hours to meet a famous mechanic. In my world an artist. He makes ninety year old motorcycles run like new. There are lots of mechanics, a few good ones, the greats are rare.

There are arts beyond image and words.

He showed me a 1923 BMW, it started first kick. A customer of his also had one. Of sixteen known, eleven in museums, they had two, so they raced them on back country roads at 75mph. He lives the art.

Many things can be raised to the level of an art. Only art it's self allows entry level work to claim to be art.

art restoration is its own art.

Call me a philistine but I have to see something in a piece of art in order to appreciate it.

Philistine!

I'm the same way, and I'm proud of it! No arrogant, narcissistic artiste is ever going to convince me that his or her crap-on-canvas piece of work is true art!

A label I relish.


I especially hate abstract.
In my philistinic opinion, if I have to have what I'm seeing in a painting explained to me then that artist has failed to produce anything worthy of being called art.

at a limited, superficial level I can appreciate abstract artworks, but I enjoy it a whole lot more if there is an explanation of some kind to help guide my thinking on it.

I still stand by this. Just as explaining a joke ruins appreciation of the joke, so does explaining art ruin the appreciation of the art.

Being told what to think is an insult.

I'd much rather have the joke explained to me, than to 1] totally miss out on the humor, and 2] be totally written off by the jokester as not being able to get it or not worthy of the effort, just because they are too lazy/haughty to bother trying to explain it to me. if I tell a joke that nobody else understands, at least I will give my audience the benefit of the doubt and try to convey my meaning to them as best I can, they are worth it by default, unless they later prove themselves not worthy [like if they throw rotten vegetables at me]. same for any quasi-artistic creation of mine, I will gladly describe my philosophy/creative process to anybody willing to listen.

What's the point of art?

Art is merely expression.

No purpose but that.

^^^
but in expression is a world of meaning.

Ha! merely an expression.

Yes, ART IS an expression;
but that is
what
human
life
is all
about;
expression;
Far, FAr, FAR
from 'merely'.

"Loneliness doesn't come from having no one around you,
but from being unable to communicate the things that are important to you."

-Carl Jung

Without art; human being is less than human being; history shows this truth
over and over and over again. And truly mechanical cognition leaning ways of
life takes away human soul in mind and body balance with the rest of nature;
human heArt in terms of feeling a full range of nuanced emotion;
and human spirit in terms of communicating emotional and
sensory feelings to other human beings; and the rest of
Nature aka God. More or less this interconnecting
purpose of ART is reflective of the creating
Force that is one and same AS Nature
aka
GOD.

To put it in
'layman's terms'
ART is GOD Now, As Is,
as total connecting Force
of All that is; again aka GOD.

Thanks auntblabby

Fred you have said this far better than I could have done. Thanks.

There is no ONE point or purpose to art.
Art, in its various mediums, is a form a communication.
Why do people communicate? The reasons are endless.

The further art gets from words and representational pictures, the more abstract it becomes because it is further from standard forms of communication. I personally find that an explanation of abstract art is sometimes helpful. As a composer, I *want* to explain certain of my pieces.

I think three questions arise when considering art:
1) What is it about?
2) What does it mean?
3) How was it made?

Question #1 is fair, and it is reasonable for an artist to explain this or for a viewer/listener to ask. Sometimes, this answer is obvious (ie. representational art). Sometimes, this is not obvious (abstract art). It is helpful to know what it is ABOUT. Who would read a book without knowing the topic? Knowing what the piece of art is about allows us to form a frame of reference to be able to view or listen to the art, which may help our ability to understand it. Without a basic understanding of what the art is about, we cannot judge whether or not the artist effectively communicated. The answer to this question should come only from the artist, not some critic.

Question #2 is a bit subjective, so it probably isn't a fair question. The artist might explain what the art means to him/her, but it is not right to expect that the art will mean the same thing to the viewer/listener. Any explanation here might help the viewer/listener to understand the *artist*, but perhaps not the artwork.

Question #3 is superfluous. Ultimately, the artist either did or did not effectively communicate. One does not need to know HOW the artist did the work in order to know whether or not the communication was effective. I also do not believe that knowing the technique behind the creation of the art increases one's enjoyment of it. Only if someone is particularly interested in an artist's technique would this be an interesting question. Some might argue that an artist's technique helped or hindered the communication of the idea, but that is a discussion best left to art critics and art appreciation classes. Most people don't care about these nitty-gritty details.

You are welcome, Mike; my pleasure;
only part of a mind and body, out of balance
is a horrible state of being human
aka human being
in my humble
opinion.
I aim to help
others get whole...
It's not always easy...
Smiles..

Expression and Perception.

The white canvas, the blank record, focus on the perception of the viewer, listener.

Blank and silent are the place artists start from, the first step to being creative.

I have maintained silent. I have a total lack of musical talent.

Perhaps biased, I seek silence, darkness, laying on a blanket on a mountaintop in the desert, there is a depth of silence, and the stars show a texture. Watching the Universe with an empty mind in nothingness, is as good as it gets.

A blank canvas is a horror movie waiting to start. From the first mark to the finished work, thousands of things can go wrong. I am not alone as x rays show the masters were giving up and painting white over paintings started but going nowhere. Other works some features were painted over several times, like trying to hide a bad tattoo.

It may save the work, you may eat for a month, but can never forget what is buried behind that basket of flowers.

The worst, knowing it is failure and flaws, it sells quicker and for more than your own view of your best work.

Art is expression, and starting out an artist explores in all directions. One of them sells, gets praised, and many tell the artist to paint another. A few Blue Dogs are an expression, painting nothing else, you become a Copyist of what was once real but now lacks a soul. The same for music, the world is full of one hit wonders, then forever trapped performing that one song.

As for the meaning of art, I build machines. My drawings mean nothing to most people, they cannot visualize a blueprint. Shopping for hardware is fun, because lines on paper and numbers mean nothing to the clerks. Worse, I buy by size, shape, material, not for assigned function. Pulling together the parts and electronics to build a 6v LED tail light for my bike, I am fairly sure I was reported to the FBI. Talk about Art Critics!

As for my better than comic book art, it illustrates a story I wrote, and no matter how developed the image, sometimes I get it right, it could not mean anything to someone who has not read the story. At least their perceptions have no connection to my purpose and meaning.

As for explaining my art, I have told people I Googled clip art, and downloaded the backgrounds and figures.

It is the same for writing. Anyone could do it if they could finish the first page. As most have never tried, they are sure they can judge those that wrote five million words, and saved 135,000.

To sum up my work, it is about how Hairless Ground Apes are Doomed, because of Genetic Defects.

If you are going to read one book this year, read someone else's.

The point of art is to be good. I like art that has puzzles in it like Where's Waldo. Dali is also good.

I don't like art that is completely random, such as what Jackson Pollock did, because it doesn't leave me with much to do or think about. I could get a similar experience from staring at the carpet.