The view from the dumpster--Art, what is it good for?

The view from the dumpster—Art, what is it good for?

Wherefore art thou, Art? Alas, I know you not, I feel bereaved that although we are well met yet I know you not. Your visage eludes me, clouded by illusions of grandeur framed by those who would usurp the power of poetic expression with or without words. I perceive the labor in your creation, the brushstrokes, the clang of the hammer on the chisel, the unintelligible marks on paper that cause a violin to call forth tears in the eyes of those who hear those exotic peals. I react to the precisely positioning of every letter on a piece of paper, massaged and stroked to create words, pushed to become sentences, enhanced by other words and thought to become a great tale. I feel the stirrings of your energy, the need to rip yourself away from the maddening thoughts that created you, the call to humanity to hear your plea, I have seen you being developed and was admonished that fools and children are not allowed to watch as a creation comes to life. I have heard your call and struggled to release you, in any form or shape or media that would quiet my mind and allow me the ability to share the most innermost manifestation of my being. Allowing me to share all that I hide, all of my truths, all of those thoughts and ideas that make me human in a way that can be recognized and interpreted in a manner that gives hope, which shares our common bond, which surpasses the feelings of loneliness, a reiteration of our own roles as a part of creation. the simple display of being me, wanting to share myself with you.

When I came back from my afternoon rounds of checking dumpsters, I had pulled something out and thrown it in the truck. When I got home, I told Debbie, that I had found something, I wasn’t sure what it was, but I liked it. It turns out that I had acquired a dark cherry puppy gate. I liked the wood, the compound hinges and I saw a potential beyond simple BTUs. I saw the possible reuse of the pieces to create something new. Basically I looked beyond the existing form and listened to what it was saying, what it could be. There are so many possibilities out there of what could be that are ignored because we have lost our vision, our ability to see beyond what we are told is there.

So many people do not understand art when it is presented to them, because they don’t recognize the format. It can be as simple as the design of a new house or office building, the packaging of our favorite foods, the clever advertisement or even a funny meme. The latest bestselling book or the newest trend in clothing, or the landscaping of our highways. Art is hidden in the purity of the Fibonacci spiral or the simple concept of 0 or 1, it is hidden in plain sight in everything we see, every day and on most days we ignore it, we ignore it consciously but our subconscious mind won’t let it go. It is in everything that is produced by man or by man’s machines, it is on every shelf in the marketplace, on every highway, in our homes, our schools, our offices. It is in fact involved in the designs of everything on the shelves, the cars on the highway, the design of our houses, schools and offices; it is in every facet of our lives. It is utilized as a subliminal selling tool, or as a direct selling tool, it is used as a bargaining position to assuage our senses. But, alas, we know it not.

We don’t know the impact of art, or the need for art when it comes to funding the arts. Long gone are the days of the individual patrons, we live in a more commercialized world, which refuses to recognize the place of art, but demands the service of artists to create the logos, to develop the websites, to create the packaging, to shape the marketing pieces, to develop the tools to convey the messages. Art, in its various forms is the driving force behind the acceptance of most of our products, our concepts and our ideas, and even our ideas are an attempt to manifest our art. But as integral as art is in the society of humans, it is never appreciated. It always has the back burner in budget discussions, especially those discussions that are led by war mongering, fat, old white men, who can’t derive a profit from art, because they don’t understand it. Bombs and bullets are important, touchdowns and homeruns matter, posturing and threats and weapons of mass destruction are critical, the need to destroy all that is good is important. 

But the reality is that if you remove support for the arts, if you undermine and ignore creativity, if you refuse to allow the human spirit to come forward and lead the way to a better tomorrow, you might as well release all of your precious bombs, let’s get it done and over with, because without art, we are nothing, we have nothing, and it’s not worth going forward.