Art IS Life!

Our modern, Western culture is in crisis. The evidence is everywhere: city skies are clouded by smog, rivers and lakes hold water unfit to swim in let alone drink, entire families are living in the streets, those who have homes live behind locked doors, children are killing other children in our schools. The incidences of ugliness in our world could fill an entire book. Urban decay is spreading to the suburbs and beyond.

There is, of course, much beauty in our culture as well, but our fast-paced way of life trains us to seek out and focus on the negative.

It began subtly, almost innocently. Creative minds thought of ways to make life easier. Electricity brought light into the night with less danger of fire. Soon after that, we were able to keep food cold and fresh for longer periods of time through a thing called refrigeration. Transportation became faster and easier, first by railroad and then by car and airplane. The telegraph sped up our long distance communication, followed by the telephone, radio, television, and today's computer systems. The list goes on and on.

These were all wonderful inventions that did indeed make many aspects of life easier, healthier, and more convenient. These modern conveniences, however, opened a Pandora's Box of related illnesses that are reaching fever pitch now, because "we are really hunter-gatherers thrust into a kind of supermechanistic, anonymous, hypermediated environment" that is foreign to our natural evolution. Humankind, as a species, cannot continue in the direction we are now headed (Dissanayake, p54).

Because these conveniences are so technologically advanced, the general public is forced to rely on "experts" to provide all the basic necessities - and luxuries - of life, with little or no creative effort on the part of the consumer. From food, shelter, and clothing to communication and entertainment, we pay someone else to do everything for us. And our hunger for more, the importance in our society to own the biggest, fastest, flashiest, newest product on the market, is never satiated. As a result, we feel disconnected and alienated at a time in history when the tools of communication are the most advanced! We have become technology's slaves.

This culture of consumerism has resulted in a loss of soul in everyday life (Moore, p388). In order to pay for these things we call "necessities," many people go to work at jobs that not only take up a majority of their waking hours, but their work is unfulfilling, routine, mindless and heartless. "Quality time" with children and spouse is rationed out as spare change after the bills are paid. We have no "time to consider (our) experience...to mark it, to care about it and to make it special" (Dissanayake, p44). Little regard is given to the beauty that can surround us and this separation of art from everyday life has created a culture in which daily life has become routine and boring. American culture views doing work for the purpose of acquiring more possessions and prestige as more valuable than creating something artistic (Arieti, p361). Art is seen as frivolous, "a useless activity in light of what is going on in the world environment" (Zuckerman, p440). Art and beauty are not a daily part of our lives, so the things that are a part of our daily lives are not sacred to us - they are disposable.

The way things "should be" is not the way things are because while we preach about the ecology of our planet, we practice a throw-away culture. And no one knows what to do with defunct high-tech junk - most of it is not broken, just out-dated (Roszak, p350). Our reverence for nature is compromised because Man is seen as the most important creature on Earth (Manes, p91), and it is believed that it is our God-given right to take from Nature without giving anything in return. As we focus on economic growth, nature becomes an object to be exploited (Merchant, p230). Decades of this superior attitude is resulting in the near-depletion of many of our resources and the extinction of related species of animal and plant life. The fact is, all species, including mankind, are related in the Web of Life, and therefore our superiority complex and ignorant disregard for Nature are resulting in our own physical downfall (Manes, pp94-95). We are facing an environmental and spiritual crisis because "we have separated ourselves from nature" (Kumar, p148).

"Soul has been driven out of the world by three hundred years of Cartesianism, science and rationalism...(and by) the inflation of the individual...white, Western human being" (Hillman, p182). The reintegration of soul and reverence for nature back into our lives is the key to reclaiming the balance that is necessary for our spiritual and physical survival. We need "to be separated from the separation and go back to being part of a large family of living beings rather than having to peek in the window" (Dutton, p70). We need to make everything holy again, to reconnect everyday actions and objects with a consciousness that recognizes the beauty in our lives, make art sacred in our culture (Dutton, p60, Dissanayake, p51 and Kumar, p138).

Western culture's view of Man - the hierarchy of Man over Beast over Plant over Rock - is reflected in our art and how it is presented. What is accepted as art, who's voice is "important" to hear, and where it is seen has put art into an elitist pyramid. Only those who "know" art are allowed to have an opinion about art, an "ours is better than theirs" attitude that is very destructive to society in general. This institutionalization of art is one symptom of Western culture's separation of soul and reverence for nature from life that must be addressed in order for a reconnection to occur. Although the art world is made up of people who truly care about the world and work together to make positive changes (Danto, p287), this sense of community is predominantly restricted to members of the art world itself, separated from the rest of the world. Satish Kumar describes art in Western culture as oases of beauty in the vast desert of ugliness, a "few, special works of art" housed in museums, galleries, and private collections (p144), ivory towers in the midst of common folk. Only a relatively few trained and talented artists have the right to do art, and the public must pay to view it. We buy "special" things for our celebrations instead of making things that are special and precious in our lives (Dissanayake, p46). "Art is...a closed world. There's a small group of people who look at art and think about art. It doesn't move out very far" (Dutton, p67). Art has been in the ivory tower for so long that most people don't even know what they are missing (Zuckerman, p449).

Art is also affected by the environment in which it is placed, which can be detrimental to the artist's voice. "Institutions have (an) agenda (without) the flexibility...necessary for the individual artist's vision" (Jacob, pp297, 300). This current separation of art from life is killing us! In a culture where so many people are physically overweight, our souls are dying of starvation because creativity is not a part of our daily lives.

In cultures where there is no word for art however, making art is a powerful act in which daily life is a prayer (Dissanayake, p51 and Dutton, p68). The creation of beautiful things such as pottery, rugs, and clothing, enhances the life of the artist who uses the object in everyday life or gives it away to a loved one. Beauty is shared and given a life of its own rather than preserved behind glass as an artifact of a dead culture. "The day you start to put beautiful things on the wall, you start to put ugly things on your body. And that is not right," said Kumar's mother when her daughter thought the shawl she made for her was too beautiful to wear (p138). When art is not a product, it's a living process. When art is created in the service of everyday life, and daily life is a prayer, the gathering and preparation of food and the construction and maintenance of a warm, dry shelter may be difficult tasks, but they are joy-filled. Time is spent in the company of friends and family while accomplishing the goals of daily work. Life in these traditional, indigenous cultures is art.

The "simple" life of these "primitive" cultures is in sharp contrast to the "convenience" of modern Western culture. The solution to our cultural dilemma, however, is not an either/or situation. "It's that idea of going to the essential human skills for living on this planet, the very basic, reverent way of living truly with the earth...rather than trying to jump into a whole other culture" (Dutton, p82).

We can begin to reintegrate soul and reverence for nature back into our lives through art. If our purpose for living is to learn not only about life in general but about ourselves, then the purpose of art should be to facilitate that learning, both for ourselves and for others. "The artist's role is to...be...the instigator for developing a sense of reverence and beauty" (Kumar, p139). Art "transforms the literal to the metaphorical and mythical (and) it's a way to let beauty into our world by means of the artist's gifts and sensibilities" (Hillman, p195). It is a tool we can use to interpret our experiences in the outside world as well as discover hidden aspects of our selves. By expressing our true selves through art, we help others to recognize their true selves. As artists we can use the powerful tool of communication that is art to raise awareness, to speak for the trees and the centipedes, to change history from Man as "the Apex of Evolution" to our story in relationship to the Web of Life (Manes, pp89, 94, 100). Solutions to world problems may not be the domain of art, but raising awareness can be. Creating art that expresses what the artist experiences as oppressive helps the viewer to connect the problem to their own experience, which may encourage them to do something about it - or at least help raise more awareness.

"Images are miracles...We are inspired by miracles, not in terms of any dogmas or definitions or commentary they support, but in terms of an awareness of something greater than what we ourselves can do" (Plante, p172). "When artists reach out to others, some form of beauty is being created...some form of good karma is being brought to the world" and when everyone feels their creative potential, "we would no longer have a cadre of specialists who form an elite body, and who are supposedly the only ones who know how to be creative" (Gablick, p444-445). We can empower non-artists to "create beauty in their own lives" (Zuckerman, p443) by teaching them that, while not everyone has the ability to become a so-called "great" artist whose work is worthy of gallery walls and museum cases, everyone does have the ability to communicate through art. "Art (can be) a new form of wealth: the more creative people become, the more opportunity they have to experience the joys of creativity, the less they will be consumers, especially of mass-produced culture, and the more they will embed themselves in that form of richness" (Roszak, p352). "It's vitally important for people to make more art - not just fine artists making their living at it, but everyone, in whatever way they can...because art is such a pure microcosm of our soul, because it doesn't exist for any other reason than to show us just that , it's a perfect mirror to reflect the sides of ourselves that don't get to dance in public often, but are relegated to the shadows... Indeed, art has something to offer everyone no matter what their vocation, not as a means of escape or hobby, but rather as a means of self-knowledge" (Carbonetti, p111). In this way we can de-institutionalize art without endangering the master works already in existence or hindering the emergence of new artists.

Changes toward a healthier society are not going to happen overnight. Change is a process of becoming and in fact our culture has already taken steps in the right direction. "People recognize they're in a trap (and) that awareness...is growing. The problem is so big that we sometimes lose track of the fact that progress does get made here and there, by fits and starts" (Roszak, pp344-345). "Most change takes place through young people, and the old ways of thinking, or the old strongly held opinions, die out, and...process-oriented thinking comes in with young people, who become concerned and interested...I do see young people as the hope for change" (Merchant, pp239-240, 245).

Changing the world begins by teaching our children that "there's a direct relationship between our lives and the world we live in, whether it has imagination, whether it's artful, or not...we have to understand beauty more deeply and give it a more relevant place in life" (Moore, pp394-396). As parents and teachers we must show our children that climbing trees, playing dress-up, and pretending are more enjoyable pastimes than watching others do the same activities on T.V., that racing bikes on a trail in a field is more fun than racing hovercrafts in an imaginary Nintendo landscape, that doing something - for its own sake - is better than merely viewing it on a screen. If we are to reintegrate soul and reverence for nature back into our lives, art must be seen as something that people "do rather than consume...as a normal part of their lives: creative endeavor as a form of profound spiritual satisfaction" (Roszak, pp352-353). As more children realize this, they will grow up to instill these same values in their children and our society will slowly change for the better. "Learning the art of living, how to relate to people, how to relate to nature and the environment around us, and how to live a more satisfactory life: this is what we (should) try to teach...if you start with a very young person and give them a different modality of education, you'll probably end up with a very different consciousness at the end...and that...is really the heart of the matter" (Kumar, p153).

Sources:

Arieti, Silvano

Creativity: The Magic Synthesis

Carbonetti, Jeanne

The Zen of Creative Painting

Gablik, Suzi

Conversations Before the End of Time (Interviews with Arthur Danto, Ellen Dissanayake, Rachel Dutton, James Hillman, Satish Kumar, Christopher Manes, Carolyn Merchant, Thomas Moore, David Plante, Theodore Roszak, and Laurie Zuckerman.)