Blog: Art’s value

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Is one of art’s values that aesthetic moment when we transfer ourselves into the aesthetic playground of the beautiful?  This playground many artists state is an aesthetic space that mindless  a space, a place, were we do not have use our minds to get there and stay there. Many artists define the aesthetic space once there as an empty slate where the stone they are carving the canvas they are about to paint is blank and they just start working and something emerges and begins become something. The artist often defines this aesthetic space through feelings.  The process feels good for the moment.  It is a euphoric moment; it is often defined as bliss.  Joseph Campbell often talked about bliss and many artists including myself love the moment and wish it would remain longer than it does. But the value behind art does not come from this aesthetic moment of bliss that happens not only for the viewer but also for the creator.  The value of art comes from our way of thinking about art.  We need to use our minds to define art’s value.  We all live by thought and that thought is individualized if we choose to call the thoughts we have about art mindless – then the value of art is mindless and we have nothing, we are doing nothing.  The aesthetic space of art can only be mindless, if indeed it ever can be, for a brief time, after that we need to use our minds to think about art and decide just what is art.