Full Bore Art Whore
About
ART, big, old, all caps. ART, has just got to be pretty damned important! Right? That said, if you are hungry, a plate of beans is far and away more important.
My favorite big ART is the Theater. Mostly because it is an agglomeration of all the arts: Fine, Plastic, Lively, and all of 'em rolled into a performance, which is not unlike fruitcake, I might add. It is a right then, right there, shared experience. Exciting!
We have been sharing these experiences for tens of thousands of years. Before we had Machiavelli Mutually Assured Destruction, and Mr. McGoo, we had seventy-thousand-year-old artfully incised pieces of red ocher, 30 thousand year old sculptures and cave paintings of similar age. Why?
Before we had civilization, we had guys in fur suits saying, "Let's go down to the sacred cave and make fun of the painter." No, I wasn't there but if there was someone making art, there was somebody looking over their shoulder being a critic. You can bet your fur suit!
If you think art isn't worth the effort, you are absolutely right. For you. Fruitcake isn't for everybody. I can't believe that I actually wrote that last bit!
For the past thirty-five hundred generations, plus or minus, big ART lovers have used the various mediums to express, to enrich, to share joy, to share sorrow, and to curry favor with their version of the almighty.
Me, I like little art, I like big ART, and I like the Goldilocks art too, cause it's just right. I like that fact that it stimulates discourse, rational or otherwise. I like the fact that our esteemed colleagues can look at a theatrical performace, which we want to etch in stone, we love it sooooo much, and say "Meh. looks like dog vomit."
They are right, bless their pointed little heads. We are right, bless our pointed little heads. And even if that performance was etched in stone, unyieding and never changing, we are never the same person. So the experience is never repeatable.
If you need immutable, buy a fuitcake.
“Art, Meh! I know what I like. That's what I know.”
– Mary Kirmo