Clan Sullivan

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True Art

The idea that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" has been around long enough - and is so generally accepted - that it seems to have passed into something like fact in the minds of most. The conclusive statement of this idea is such a powerful force that it is generally able to end argument, if not suspicion, over the artistic value of something.

Art itself, however, is not so weak a thing that it can just die at the proclamation of it's demise. No, true art is a thing inborn within the human soul; it is not shared with beasts or birds nor with any other creature on this earth. It is an ideal, and an definite one, if we can but see through the mists that sometimes obscure it's presence and blur the edges.

In other aspects of life special clarity is not nearly so vital to discern boundaries. In sports, we know that winning and sportsmanship are both ideals. Very few set out to loose, after all. In design we can say that something is built well if it fulfills it's function with integrity: Engineers work to make structures that will resist the forces of nature, and do so with safety and usefulness.

Art also is a definite goal. It is not a goal we can describe in so many words; but we find it unnecessary to do so. It is indescribable, but it describes itself adequately. We may repress it's appreciation in one generation, only to discover that we will have to do so again in the next.

Even if such a definition of art comes naturally to us, it looks at first hard to defend on rational grounds until we realize that enjoyment, not art, is in the eye of the beholder. A person may enjoy something because he made it, or because he thinks it represents something abstract within himself, or even because it tickles a diabolic nerve. A thing may be enjoyed because it is shocking or because it causes a particular emotion. But it is not art; it is only an agent of communication.

Art, beauty, and music are three parts to the same whole. Art may come in different flavors, but remains the reason the we like straight edges on houses and picture frames, but unending patterns in the wood that makes those houses and frames. We are in what remains of a great dance with our Creator: He supplies the beautiful wildness, and we give it the geometric shapes that complete it's beauty. We color within the lines that He has drawn.