It’s happened, I’ve been provoked to get out my soap box, write up a little essay, and share it with the vast interweb community.
Art will be my topic. More importantly the idea of so called “Good” art and so called “Bad” art. We argue, contend, and try to place value to a medium that is subjective, yet we try to spin it to seem as though it is an objective medium. We devalue, judge, and make calls about how “this” artist is so much better than “this” artist because of x,y, or z. Yet at the end of the day most art is all about when it hits you, not based on what it is. The biggest issue for me is that we live in a post-enlightenment world where people have stopped believing in creation and are more interested in this false idea of originality. Rather than create simply from an honest place we taint our art with concepts of trying to over work, think, and conceptualize our art so that it doesn’t “sound” or “look” or remind someone of anything they have ever heard before.
Though there is beauty in these pursuits they are off because they make the artist the god we are pursuing and the artist will spend there life always working, almost out of paranoia to keep themselves ahead of the other artists (god’s) working their way to the top.
Who in their right mind decides what is original and what isn’t anyway? Seriously, so much art is being made now at such a rapid rate, if you research it you can find out that not that much “original” stuff is being made. But, there is GOOD art being made. That’s the key for me. There is Good art, and there is bad art, but most of that distinction lays not in color choices, or notes played, or lyrics. It’s in the performance or the articulation of the art. Is this piece of art well made? If we can say “yes” then it’s good art. Now, it might not do anything for you. Nickleback for instance is not a band I like, but are all the guys in that band good musicians? Yep, do I like their songs, nope! But they have made Good art in my opinion. Why? Because they can play their instruments well, sing their songs in key, and they have the guts to say something and put their thoughts out there. You may say, “their chord changes are all the same.” Well then does chord change variety play into what good art is then? If so, how varied to they need to be to be good enough for you? If you want to go down that road you are welcomed to it, but I think people over think it at that point. Originality is a subjective and mute point that we use in arguments mainly as a straw-man argument built to hide our self-consciousness, and build up our low self-esteem. We throw it around as if there actually was a universal understanding of the term.
The idea of original art for me is a fallacy and a useless idea to pursue. Why? Because it tries to make art into something it isn’t. Art is simply an expression, but like most things we confuse expressions with personal worth. We take something that is beautiful and then start playing with ideas like, “that art is good because it makes me feel this way” or “that art is good because it does this and not that.” Then we bridge into even deeper territory and say, “you aren’t smart, or you don’t have good taste unless you like this art.” We begin to literally classify ourselves and our worth based on music, scribbles on a piece of paper, or a speakers style. It’s really silly. Saying simple statements like “Yeah I never got into them” sparks massive discussions about how someone can’t believe someone else couldn’t like the art they like, and how if you don’t like something you just don’t have complex or mature enough taste.
At the end of the day, art falls into Good and Bad, and above the “good” art is simply a huge tree that stretches out into so many directions NONE of us will ever be able to fully know the amazing music being made around the world. Good art is simple well executed and processed work. There will be those of us who excel and make art that vast audiences praise, and some will only be enjoyed by a few, but both of those groups can create equally good art. Bad art is simply the poorly executed stuff done by people who aren’t working in the medium they should be creating in. A singer who is tone def but who has an amazing eye for painting. Or the basketball genius who pursues a baseball career for no reason. It’s bad art, we all see it, it’s not done well.
At the end of the day it’s art people, it’s a luxury, and it’s something people listen to or look at so they can relax, enrich their lives, express themselves, or just vent. It’s not a means to an end on its own. Yes, art can have amazing impact on our world, it can shape it, but not because of how good or bad it is, but its how it hits its audience’s ears and when it hits. If you are lucky enough to be a U2 and a Beatles in your era than you are blessed, but again that doesn’t validate you as Good or Bad. It just means God had a plan for you.
Before we became an almost strictly empirical, and individual centered society people thought of art and inspiration in a completely different way. The Theologian St. Augustine talked about how all life flowed out of the mind of God, and all our concepts of beauty and life flowed out of the mind of God and into us at birth, and our lives where spent simply remembering what we already knew. But in our post enlightenment/industrial revolution society we look at art in a more individual/what-does it-do-for-me way. We think we have to prove ourselves, work hard to be original, and make it to the top. We think a bigger audience means we are justified. Or we think, we don’t want a large audience so we can say our art is smart, to smart for the average person. Whatever the case is, in these cases we are creating not because we understand that creation is something that is central to our being and what we were made to do. We are creating to validate our existence. This presents itself a logical conflict, we begin to judge what we were made to do and then we begin to fear creation and instead we become consumers and turn our backs on what we were made to do. Essentially we become fearful of creation and we make soulless work, or we stop creating all together. We think we have to create something “special” to validate who we are because we don’t think we are worth much if we can’t make something good. But, we weren’t made to create and judge, we were just meant to create and let that be good enough. Remember, as Christians part of the fall consisted of us gaining the ability to judge good and evil. This wasn’t in the cards as far as what God wanted us to do while we were on earth.
As followers of Christ are concern should never be, “I need to make it to the top, because that means I am doing the best job possible, and that means I am being a good artists and I am validated as a person.” Our worth as Artists doesn’t stem from success by the world standards. Scripture is very clear that God appoints the kings of this world to their posts. God is in control of our fame, not us. If we make it to the top it isn’t because we are better, its because God has a plan for our lives and wants to put us in a position of influence. Our goal each day shouldn’t be focused on being elite or to create only for a niche market, and it shouldn’t be about being popular. We should create because we are made to do so and we should want to learn to explore how deep our gifting goes and as such we should constantly create and refine our giftedness not our of a sense of being better then so and so, but out of a desire to fully realize who we are. We should be artful in how we approach everything we do, and we should be encouraging everyone we meet to do the same. If we don’t get someone’s art, that’s ok because that just means that art isn’t for us, it’s for another audience and God will use it as He sees fit.
Art at the end of the day isn’t a thing we can define, and being an artist isn’t a role only granted to a select few, it’s the way we approach our lives. It’s not a weapon to be used to separate people into classes, it’s a tool to bring them together. Sure, you can hold on to latter idea and try to find worth in it, make it your soul pursuit, but at the end of the day you’ll find it comes up short of what you want it to be. If you are someone who has created your whole life and only had a small audience for your work, keep your chin up, it’s my belief that God is using you the same way He uses the most famous artists of our day. Don’t believe lies that say you have to be this big or that recognized to be happy as an artist. All that happens when you reach the “next level” you’ve been reaching for is the realization that there is just another level left for you to go.
Art isn’t about perfection; it’s not a competition, its what we do with our lives. There are people I know who are creating the greatest pieces of art this world has ever seen, and it’s the legacy they are leaving on their community with their lives. Women who go to help families in need each week in Detroit. College and Singles groups that meet to serve on the weekends, and who meet to create community based music experiences, young artists creating and enriching peoples lives with their stories through songs, paintings and sculptures, hair dressers, businessmen, teachers, the stories go on and on. I know countless people in our community who are amazing artists. And it’s not because they are being exceptionally original, but its because they are using their gifts in a way that is beautiful and that impacts the community around them.
We all have a role to play, but we hinder our impact and each other when we make it a competition. Our worth lays in who we are, and our art is important because it was what we are here for. Share your gifts, enjoy the art around you, encourage each other, it’s not a competition it’s a journey.
Grace and Peace,
D
sorry for all grammatical and/or spelling errors it was 3am when I typed this up.
