The Nature of Art
Many people try to put art on a pedestal,
They mount it on a rest
Saying, "Shakespeare was the best,"
Or , "I (insert cute heart sticker here) Socrates,"
However, both men are no longer in the land of the living!
"Do not forever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives
must die,
Passing through nature to eternity."*
For Shakespeare's art was enjoyed by the common masses and often seen as vulgar in his prime
Even though some see it as being saintly in our time!
Socrates the Hemlock was forced to drink as ," bad influence," he was often seen, on the Athenian Youth,
Who loved to dream!
Those who try to define art often are the very ones who often art do slay!
They think there can be no other way!
But coming back to the present
day...
I am an artist!
You are an artist!
The child painting with his own boogers is an artist!
The vandal with a spray paint can is an artist,
( Although
Most Cops don't see him as one with their own imperious eyes!)
We all are artists!
Living is our art if nothing else,
Our existence the medium which we use to express ourselves!
And whether that painting was good or horrid it still is art and
Still will last,
Alas!
Alas!
Well, then, why don't we see ourselves that way?
Partially because others tell us,
"Oh this cannot be art!
This is not Shakespeare!
This is a disease!
This is not even close to
Socrates!" @
Yes, some consider art as an exuse to be obscene(1),
They cover up their filth with a pearly sheen!
But
These people will consider the error of their ways in the end
When they go back and edit what they have penned,
Like Frankestein looking back at his Monster with terror and fleeing the room,
Fearing what departed his fiendish mind's womb !
However,...
let the people write!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also, it is partially because we ourselves are the Censors!
Afraid of what the world might see,
We don't consider some of our works poetry though
they are and should considered be
as such!
Even though it doesn't look the part
Shouldn't keep it from being art!
Yet, some people try to cage art. They want it to be something cutesie they can display for guests
That lie upon their couches of rest,
Keeping Leviathan as a pet for their handmaidens** ,
Its lust for flesh unslaken.
Yet it is in the nature of beasts to eat meat ,(and sometimes human flesh,)
and the nature of art to inform people of truth perceived or really there,
and burst the bubbles of complacency and rest.
Art is not something to try and control,
Let it grab and move with you but still be careful,
for there is a beast within that canvas!
However, art can be a soothing and calming thing, when put in the right hands,
Like a ship on the sea*** or a Landscape Painting upon the land!
But whose hands are the right ones? Who can tell,( unless in retrospect?!)
Therefore, art should be put in everyone's hands until the Right Hands come along!
*This is a quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet.
@ Even though this is how I personally feel about rap and the works of other more contemporary artists, I still must concede that their works are technically art!
(1) Seth Rogen and Adam Sandler can both be examples of this at times!
**See Job 41:5-8
***See Proverbs 30:19