Art
Growing up in a relatively small town, I've been interested in drawing and art history. I've always loved the great artists of the western world. Having been to the art museums in London and France, it dawned on me that great art isn't necessary the subject nor the painting style or the time it was painted. Monet with Impressionism or the realism of Flemish Primitives always showed greatness through color, light, and technique.
Neither of those three make great art but rather what the artist conveys. Conveyance of life shines a light onto what makes great art, not what materials are used or the medium shown. The genius is always in the mind of the artist showing something or someone from a different perspective. As the saying goes, "the devils in the details," speak volumes. As most great artists can leave out varied details and its great art while others show great detail and its great art.
Does that mean detail is important? I think so, how can one show a forest in a landscape with trees of various size, shape, color, etc. without making the details drown out the talents of the artist? To me, it goes down to the minds eye of visualizing it and knowing how it should be represented. To add leaves, branches, or differing colors. Anyone can draw a tree but what are the details shown or not shown? Is the end result seen as a tree? In most terms yes! But still does it show mastering of a medium?
Rembrandt can paint a person and so can a 8 year old in art class. Both can show important details in paint or crayon but can they masterfully show the depth in how they perceive it accurately? I'd say yes, a man with a shovel can be drawn or painted but how it's shown can show a scene in detail that brings to a wide audience emotion, symbolism, perspective, or myriad of others or a little bit of everything shows mastery.
Mastery was taught from the great artist to students or gained through years of patience and practice. Watching a documentary about Stanislow Szukalski provided an epiphany that how great a person is can be eclipsed by life, history, and self. Painting and sculpture are difficult for those rarely delve into perspective on a day to day bases. Same with those who practice martial arts or musical instruments. One cannot just pick up an art and be masterful at it but personal interest and love for what they do provides a foundation from which they master it.
Winston Churchill's paintings to me are amazing, not only because the brilliant man he was but rather it was something he enjoyed doing and he stuck with it throughout his life, just a small facet of a brilliant mind that didn't define his notoriety but rather reflected his studiousness and perseverance in a different manner. Not being swayed by the reasoning of a populous but the joy of painting where he had been and keeping the "black dog" away.
Anthony Bourdain, a chef that wrote a book and ultimately became a television personality. Growing up, his perspective of travel and food opened the doors on the world for me. Showing we human beings, no matter where we are, are pretty much the same and enjoy the same things. We're varied in our life styles but food, like it is art, can bring us together. Same can be said for the original trio of presenters on Top Gear UK, though the audience is more about automobiles, being rounded enough in comedic interpretation and narrative, are able to reach a much broader audience as Anthony Bourdain does through the use of passion of the medium and subject.
In modern society, quick and easy seems to guide us and yet so much is lacking in our lives from intellectual pursuits that the mundane and quirky have become less and less. Normalcy is by what is given from the majority, when something is liked and idolized it quickly hits the mainstream and is given high rank over all else that is equally good. I'm reminded of one my own pursuits, that is Historical European Martial Arts, taken from the pages of Medieval Fecht Buchs (Fight Books). At one time it was considered a piece of prized art and literature to own a manuscript, hand written and illustrated to convey basics of fighting. As fighting was something every free man should've known, either basics of wrestling for sport or defense to common weapon techniques and yet it's put on a page for the ages!
As the western world delved into new technologies from it's early weapon usages of edged weapons onto more destructive tools of what we know as firearms. The anachronism of using forged steel for combat is no more but yet is replaced by Modern Sports Fencing, which entails techniques solely used in sport but borrows from rapier fighting fundamental concepts such as timing and right of way. Concepts that as a whole only paint a simplistic picture of what was once great, rich, and had great depth in all the sword fighting disciplines in Medieval to Renaissance Western Europe.
The means of self discovery is I think art in of itself and is probably the base for what are really is. Showing perspective and mastery of a given subject and medium which in turn inspires those who witness it to either think in a different way or inspiring them to go on and practice themselves their own arts and through themselves find a different part of them. I think cars and motorcycles are a good reference subject in the United States, we've all seen cars and motorcycles but what captivates us is how they're used and portrayed in media.
How it's portrayed and invariably replicated by going out and buying or working on a car shows interested in moving art itself. People rebuilding classic cars want to inspire others of what was once roaming the freeways of America or for those old enough reminisce about days gone by. Others want to emulate Easy Rider and the lifestyle portrait in the movie. Discovering ones self is the ultimate form of what art is, what it will be, and how it shapes either an individual or people. Sometimes it's immediate or takes awhile.
Neither of those three make great art but rather what the artist conveys. Conveyance of life shines a light onto what makes great art, not what materials are used or the medium shown. The genius is always in the mind of the artist showing something or someone from a different perspective. As the saying goes, "the devils in the details," speak volumes. As most great artists can leave out varied details and its great art while others show great detail and its great art.
Does that mean detail is important? I think so, how can one show a forest in a landscape with trees of various size, shape, color, etc. without making the details drown out the talents of the artist? To me, it goes down to the minds eye of visualizing it and knowing how it should be represented. To add leaves, branches, or differing colors. Anyone can draw a tree but what are the details shown or not shown? Is the end result seen as a tree? In most terms yes! But still does it show mastering of a medium?
Rembrandt can paint a person and so can a 8 year old in art class. Both can show important details in paint or crayon but can they masterfully show the depth in how they perceive it accurately? I'd say yes, a man with a shovel can be drawn or painted but how it's shown can show a scene in detail that brings to a wide audience emotion, symbolism, perspective, or myriad of others or a little bit of everything shows mastery.
Mastery was taught from the great artist to students or gained through years of patience and practice. Watching a documentary about Stanislow Szukalski provided an epiphany that how great a person is can be eclipsed by life, history, and self. Painting and sculpture are difficult for those rarely delve into perspective on a day to day bases. Same with those who practice martial arts or musical instruments. One cannot just pick up an art and be masterful at it but personal interest and love for what they do provides a foundation from which they master it.
Winston Churchill's paintings to me are amazing, not only because the brilliant man he was but rather it was something he enjoyed doing and he stuck with it throughout his life, just a small facet of a brilliant mind that didn't define his notoriety but rather reflected his studiousness and perseverance in a different manner. Not being swayed by the reasoning of a populous but the joy of painting where he had been and keeping the "black dog" away.
Anthony Bourdain, a chef that wrote a book and ultimately became a television personality. Growing up, his perspective of travel and food opened the doors on the world for me. Showing we human beings, no matter where we are, are pretty much the same and enjoy the same things. We're varied in our life styles but food, like it is art, can bring us together. Same can be said for the original trio of presenters on Top Gear UK, though the audience is more about automobiles, being rounded enough in comedic interpretation and narrative, are able to reach a much broader audience as Anthony Bourdain does through the use of passion of the medium and subject.
In modern society, quick and easy seems to guide us and yet so much is lacking in our lives from intellectual pursuits that the mundane and quirky have become less and less. Normalcy is by what is given from the majority, when something is liked and idolized it quickly hits the mainstream and is given high rank over all else that is equally good. I'm reminded of one my own pursuits, that is Historical European Martial Arts, taken from the pages of Medieval Fecht Buchs (Fight Books). At one time it was considered a piece of prized art and literature to own a manuscript, hand written and illustrated to convey basics of fighting. As fighting was something every free man should've known, either basics of wrestling for sport or defense to common weapon techniques and yet it's put on a page for the ages!
As the western world delved into new technologies from it's early weapon usages of edged weapons onto more destructive tools of what we know as firearms. The anachronism of using forged steel for combat is no more but yet is replaced by Modern Sports Fencing, which entails techniques solely used in sport but borrows from rapier fighting fundamental concepts such as timing and right of way. Concepts that as a whole only paint a simplistic picture of what was once great, rich, and had great depth in all the sword fighting disciplines in Medieval to Renaissance Western Europe.
The means of self discovery is I think art in of itself and is probably the base for what are really is. Showing perspective and mastery of a given subject and medium which in turn inspires those who witness it to either think in a different way or inspiring them to go on and practice themselves their own arts and through themselves find a different part of them. I think cars and motorcycles are a good reference subject in the United States, we've all seen cars and motorcycles but what captivates us is how they're used and portrayed in media.
How it's portrayed and invariably replicated by going out and buying or working on a car shows interested in moving art itself. People rebuilding classic cars want to inspire others of what was once roaming the freeways of America or for those old enough reminisce about days gone by. Others want to emulate Easy Rider and the lifestyle portrait in the movie. Discovering ones self is the ultimate form of what art is, what it will be, and how it shapes either an individual or people. Sometimes it's immediate or takes awhile.
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