Of late so much has been inspiring me. Musically, at the moment I greatly enjoy listening to the kooks (above) and, of course, the Beatles. Art is also a great inspiration, as well as the multitude of color that surrounds me in this beautiful world.
So, anyway, about art (the paint clay kind, not the musical kind). As I was looking through a book on modern art, a couple thoughts passed through my mind, namely:
- There are so many artists
- The majority of artists over the past century have done a fairly successful job of butchering fine art and replacing it with emotional scribbles and blobs
- These artists raised timeless to the position to define what is beautiful and what is “good” art (as opposed to the Renaissance, when God's creation was the ultimate definition of beauty). Nihilism, one of the leading beliefs of the past century, leads to total depression. Many artists drown in this hopeless darkness, a darkness that they made for themselves by removing a beautiful and merciful God from their world. If there is no God, then we loose the definition of wright and wrong, and then we lose all the motivation we should have to do good, perservere through hard times, and to create.
All this is to say that it seems that many of the artists of the past century lived unhappy lives that they ended themselves. Of course, artists are rather crazy by nature. But with a nihilistic viewpoint, their brilliant creativity that could have produced breathtaking works of art (like the works of masters such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, the Pre-Raphaelites, etc) now produces blobs of spatter paint. No wonder they are so depressed. Who wouldn't rather create something with meaning than a pointless mess?
Another matter to ponder is that, for some reason, modern artists have the notion that “good art” is something that is unlike any other piece of art ever created. Now, if that is how you define good art, you are going to have people calling blank sheets of paper and urinals art. There simply are a limited number of art genres, a limited number of styles. There are only so many new ways to create art, and, in my opinion, if “uniqueness” has now become more important than beauty, talent, and technique, we are a very lost and hopeless people.
Now don't take me wrong, I do value individuality, but in its place.
Even though in general the art of the past century is something that I do not love greatly, there are exceptions. There are artist that have created works that could stand on there own next to any Renaissance master, as well as more crazy artists, like Dali, who, despite there weird modernism, have always stuck a chord in me. Here are a few beauties.
• Camille Claudel was Rodin’s student, model, and lover (Why did so many of the most amazing artist lead such immoral lives?)
Here is a sculpture she did called La Valse.
Loves Song by Giorgio de Chirico
I have a list of paintings I would like to post for your enjoyment, as well as some pictures of my latest work, but I am posting this from a friend's computer. I have spent the most wonderful week at her house, resting and doing absolutely nothing the majority of the time. However I hope to get some nice pictures of the past few weeks developed soon. Thank you for you patience and comments.
