Part 2 of 2
We call it “Art,” but in actuality, it’s really “Expression,”. We started by chiseling and painting on cave walls to tell the stories of what happened because someone wanted to record the Truth as they saw it for those they would leave behind…. and for those who would come after.
That evolved into painting walls and canvases with colors, becoming ever more realistic over time….. while those chiseled cave drawings also morphed into the notation of spoken language, so stories – true and imagined – could be recorded & read, silently or aloud, for the remainder of human time.
Then the speaking of the stories, true or imagined – evolved into an ability to act out the people involved with the stories for others…. to create the deepest possible understanding of whatever human experience the story was about so that those who would be left behind and those who would come after could see it and hear it in the clearest possible way.
To really sense the bits of Truth, as the authors understood it, of how Love and Time were effecting their lives.
And…. somewhere towards the beginning of all of this, it was discovered that the vibration of sound was the fastest way to reach the heart, the mind, and the soul.
All animals use sound to express. We Humans learned to control pitch, eventually to harmonize, eventually to combine words with the sounds and harmonies to tell each other our stories – true or imagined.
Music allows us a deeper level to communicate with ourselves AND for those who will be left behind and those who will come after. We have taken the beating of our hearts and transferred it into rhythm.
We’ve always done it…. hitting trees or stretched animal skins or anything that would make sound to provide a rhythmic foundation for the stories we need to tell to each other… to a pulse to our history (for those who will be left behind and those who will come after).
So, after centuries and centuries, from the beginning of human life, we have used Art – NEEDED Art – to express our Truths about Love over Time.
We cannot live without Art. Art is what we do. In my opinion, Art is not just words or music or painting or movement, it is also science and medicine and cooking and care and athletic skill and instruction and maintenance and whatever needs doing to keep humanity surviving. All of it is Art.
I don’t know how we’ve come to a place where some Art has become more valuable than other Art. In this area, I think we’ve lost our way. Yes, medical Art, when one needs medical care, is clearly very valuable. Yet we now know for certain, thanks to the Art of scientific study, that laughter and music are often the most healing things around. And if that’s Truth, then those who can provide those Arts are as valuable to Human Health as those dealing in chemical and natural remedies.
Yes, I look at this from the perspective of a creative Artist because being a creative artist is the only perspective I have.
Through painting, sculpture, literature, music, dance, written and spoken words, we see our lives. We see our truths and our fantasies. We see our history, and we see our hopes. It is the “job” of any artist on their human journey to provide comfort, escape, information, inspiration, nourishment and food for contemplation to everyone else, whether they choose to engage in it or not.
As I see it, there is no more profound or vital service that can be provided than to create – in some form – Art that will live both now and forever….. for those who are here with us, those who will be left behind and those who will come after.
That puts Art in the same bed with Truth and Love and Time…. as it is Art that is the only tool that communicates the Truths we experience through Love over Time. It’s a foursome. One of enormous proportions.
Inseparable. Unstoppable. As long as there are Humans, these four cannot be separated. Nor, I think, can they ever be fully understood. The only one of these that we have even the smallest control over is Art, but I think all creative artists will tell you that the creation of Art works best when the artist does not try to control it but lets it express itself as it desires to.
Which then leaves the bottom line as: We are in control of nothing except our reactions to that which we cannot control.
Human – perhaps more clearly “animalistic” emotions must be processed. That’s a necessary, healthy part of being alive. That may, in fact, be the only real purpose to being alive…. Expressing emotion for ourselves and others.
Emotion is ultimately expressed through some form of Art – it’s the result of some kind of Truth dealing with some kind of Love existing in some dimension of Time.
Time and Love and Truth and Art. A foursome forever intertwined.
