Blog: Art’s Value, Part II

Featured image (detail view): Rides At The Circus

Is one of art’s values that aesthetic moment when we transfer ourselves into the aesthetic realm of the beautiful? And is that aesthetic space mindless or do we have use our minds to get there and stay there. Many artists define the aesthetic space 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 the 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. Perhaps the value of art comes with this aesthetic moment of bliss that happens not only for the viewer but also for the creator.

There is no doubt the aesthetic moments of beauty of bliss exist within art. But it isn’t a mindless moment. It isn’t a moment where we travel freely with no thought. Perhaps as a child, when we were building our foundations to how to understand and thing about art we could, but not as a grown-up artist can we do that. The value of art, comes with the artist, and the artist needs to think, too use their minds to create, to recreate that moment of bliss. It doesn’t just happen. That line, that color with that other color, that curve in the stone, that stare, that movement at require the artist to think, to use their minds during the process of creating.

Arts value is not mindlessness, rather it is the awareness that this work demanded a great deal of thought to make it what it is.

Arts value does not come from mindlessness, rather it is the awareness of the foundations within that the artist builds upon to allow them to explore, discover and think differently. To think differently.
Arts value comes from the self-discipline of the artist to overcome natural inclination to do in the moment what is most pleasurable, what makes one “feel” good. Arts value comes from creating something that creates the most happiness not just for a moment. Arts value should be timeless, and easily recognized as art because of it’s universal ability to speak across time and culture.

The wisdom to be able to create value in art is not mindless – the idea that art can be anything and everything to anyone and everyone makes art mindless. Art is not mindless. The creator/artist needs to think while creating. The viewer needs to think while looking.

The wisdom to be able to create value in art needs to be objective not mindless. To be objective does not mean we need to use statistics, and measurements to define art. The notion of art has always been fluid, to be fluid does not make it mindless.