The process of becoming an artist is really quite fascinating to me. Psychology has trained me to observe people closely to find what motivates them. Martial arts have trained me to observe what’s going in myself to gain some measure of control over it. The artist observes things only with an eye towards recording, or interpreting, them. Other than that, there seems to be very little judgment about them. When studying someone’s face to paint or sculpt, for example, you forget about whether they are beautiful or not, the goal is simply to examine the lines and color and so on. That information is then filtered through the artists’ lens and the moment recorded in whatever medium they employ. It seems a very Zen-like process to me because it prompts one to live in the moment.
I used to wonder what a painter or photographer was thinking by producing a picture of say, a pair of sneakers or a simple window. Such things have begun to make sense to me. There is a profound beauty in the most simple, everyday things if we can only learn to look at them with new eyes. This brings to mind The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius , one of my favorite books of all time. The emperor says:
“Make for yourself a definition or description of every object presented to you, so as to see distinctly what it is in it’s own naked substance, complete and entire, and tell yourself its proper name, and the names of the things of which it is compounded and into which it will be dissolved. For nothing so elevates the mind as to be able to examine methodically and truly every object which comes before you in life, and always to look at things so as to see at once what kind of universe this is, and what kind of service each performs in it, and what value each has in relation to the whole, and what it has for man, who is a citizen of that loftiest city, to which all other cities are families.”
“Look beneath the surface. Let neither the peculiar quality of anything nor its value escape you.”
I have found that it does indeed elevate the mind to see things for what they are and where they fit into the big picture. It's helped me to grow as an individual to learn to see things the way some artists see them.
I don’t mean those 'works of art' that are supposed to make some kind of statement and are devoid of any beauty. I have often thought that people who pretend to see deep political or social ‘statements’ in a work of art are also the kind that see the emperors' new clothes. To be sure, many people who call themselves ‘artists’ produce pure garbage. I'm not talking about beginners here, or those who haven't yet found their own style. The 'artists' I mean seem to have somehow secretly agreed with other ‘artists’ (who also have no talent) to esteem each others' work. The rest of us are told we ‘just don’t get it’ when we don’t see the emperors new clothes too. I don’t buy into the delusions of such folks.
I do find that others have a unique way of perceiving the world around them, and in their quiet ways, try to share a glimpse of that with the rest of us. Rembrandt has made me see people a little more thoughtfully. Monet has made me see beauty in simple forms. Picasso has taught me that forms and my feelings about them can be separated. Mark Rothko has shown me what deep emotion there can be in color without form.
I've only mentioned the visual arts here but, sculptors, dancers, writers and actors can all do the same kind of things. They have the power to uplift and transform, the power to help us be carried away in the everyday. They can add richness and texture to our lives. I’m of the school of thought that art should be beautiful. I believe artists are here to make the world more beautiful. There is enough ugliness in life. We don’t need to see it reflected in works of art too. Art, at it’s best I think, uplifts the daily and mundane and helps us to see the beauty in it. It helps us to see the same old things with new eyes.
Life is renewed each moment when one sees it with such eyes. What a gift that is…
