The Art Of Everything

 

There are those of us who view everything for its artistic value, whether 'it' is meant to be art or not.

 

There are those of us who view everything in terms of the profit that can be made from it. In the eyes of these people, if you cannot make a profit from it, it is worthless.

 

This is where the first view has them beat, because the first group recognizes that EVERYTHING can be viewed in terms of art, including making a profit.

 

Both of these are simply viewpoints on the same reality.

 

Here is reality

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is, as you can see, simple. Straightforward. It is what it is.

 

But people, us, we see this reality through our own lenses.  Our own filters.

And those filters have a huge effect on how we perceive reality.

Some see a circle, a never-ending rotation. Some see a zero, a nothing. Some see an empty vessel to be filled. Some see a coin. Some see the sun, or moon, or other celestial body. Some see an open mouth, wanting food. Some see an open mouth, screaming for help. I'm sure there are more.

 

I can imagine all these different versions of reality, because I know that my own version is conditioned by my filter, and therefore so is everyone else's version.

 

This is looking at reality artistically. Artists are trained (or sometimes just naturally know) to look at things not just for the thing itself, but for the essence of the thing, the symbology of the thing, the history of the symbology for the thing, the possible other interpretations of the thing, and the meaning in different cultures for the thing. And we question. Not to disprove or deny, but to understand.

 

For those who only see things for their monetary value, anything that does not have a monetary value is worthless.  They may buy art, but they buy it because they think they'll make money on it. Or that they can make money from the PR value.  They would pay millions for a Van Gogh now, but would never have bought the same art from the unknown painter Van Gogh at the time.

 

For those of us who view reality in terms of art, the last four years have been excrutiating.

 

The bumbling, the insults, the artlessness. He doesn't even play the political game well. The bombast, the pettiness. There is no subtlety, no inside joke, no smooth execution of form. No originality. It is a black velvet painting of Jesus, or Elvis, or dogs playing poker, using techniques so tired and obvious a child can see, techniques not born of skill but of ignorance. Brush strokes that imitate the brush strokes of masters who have gone before without ever understanding the source. Without ever feeling the need, the reason, for that specific brushstroke in that particular location.

 

Thus it is propaganda. Not to be taken seriously. An insult to all other forms of art. It is poorly executed, sloppy. And not sloppy for a reason, sloppy because there is no respect for the technique, no respect for the audience, no respect for the craft.

 

But here's the point I'm trying to make: For those of us who view reality artistically, we have an innate sense of the concept of viewpoint. That a thing viewed from different viewpoints can appear to be quite different things.

 

Because of this concept we can imagine other viewpoints, other ways of looking at things. This is the definition of an open mind. For someone who only thinks in terms of monetary value to be gained, those different viewpoints are irrelevant because there is no money to be made. They may pretend to support these other viewpoints, if they think they can make money doing so, but that would be the only reason, and if they don't have to pretend they won't.

 

To them, the only value in anything is monetary. All other considerations are worth nothing.  Worse than nothing, they are a distraction. This makes communication difficult, frustrating and often fruitless, as if they are speaking two different languages.

 

Because they are.