Here is a non-political, self indulgent, post about art for this Sunday afternoon.

I recently found myself part of an audience listening an elderly gentleman reading a lovely poem. The gentlemen had a nice voice and clearly a mastery of the material, but something interfered with my enjoyment of the poem.

He kept stopping to explain what it meant. Every time he did that he interrupted the cadence of the poem and took the listener out of the world created by the poet into the reality of the auditorium in which we sat.

And instead of simply enjoying a well written poem, my mind started to reflect on one of my own strongly held prejudices concerning art.

You see I have a somewhat eclectic and flexible definition for "art". I believe that art is essentially anything that creates an emotional response in its audience. Under that definition I can fit almost any medium, music, dance, poetry, film, oil painting, watercolor painting, house painting, the spoken word, comic strips, martial arts, just to name a few. And what's more art NEVER needs to be explained. Nobody can explain what you are feeling, because your experience is uniqely your own.

Did some of what I included give you pause? Do you think perhaps my definitions too broad? Bear with me.

Below I have provided examples of what I consider "art". Please just look, listen, and feel them, but try NOT to think about them. Just allow whatever emotional response they inspire wash over you.

Does it really make any difference WHO she is, or WHAT she is smiling about? Or is how you feel when you see it all that matters?



Does the fact that this was for a television show somehow diminish its beauty?

Or perhaps poetry is more your cup of tea. Here is one of my favorites.

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

Right around the third stanza I always start to mist up. Darn that Kipling!

Now open your mind just a little bit more watch this.

It is after all referred to as a Martial "art".

Now one more example, perhaps one of the most powerful.



I cannot think of a better example of a modern piece of art which had an almsot incalculable emotional impact on those that were exposed to it. I sent this to everybody I knew who was still sitting on the fence about Barack Obama. All but one decided to support his candidacy, and FOUR of them went to work for his campaign. As an example of art creating an "emotional response" this was pretty hard to beat.

The point of this post is nothing more then to share my own personal perceptions of what constitutes "art". I sometimes get static from my more "cultured" friends for watching television, or going to the moves, or listening to pop music, and I always think to myself "are you insinuating that art can only be found in a museum or art gallery?" Let's not forget that even the great Mozart was at one point considered "lowbrow peasant music".

Art should never be defined by elitist or snobs. It should be defined by those who view it. Whether it be country music, driftwood carvings, or painted seashells, if it brings joy, sadness, or excitement to your heart then who is to say it is not art.

If you read this far, then thank you for indulging me as I went on my little rant this afternoon. Sometimes my posts are just an opportunity for me to get something off of my chest. This was one of those. However if you saw something new that you liked, or saw something you thought you knew in a different light, then mores the better.

Namaste