That gets me all in a tizzy.

(By the way, if you don’t want to read all of my babbling, then just read the last three paragraphs, I make the most sense there and spent the most time writing those. Plus, that’s basically where my thesis is.)

I often consider if other people view art the same way that I do, and I must say that it doesn’t seem like that’s the case. For example, I don’t understand how there were such defined periods in art history. I don’t understand how each art movement had such specific styles of art churned out during it. Is it art if it is not made to express something inside the creator? (For that matter is Graphic Design art if I’m just making pretty things to suit the desires of others? But that’s another subject entirely.)

I mean, I can see how people can express themselves in a specific medium when there isn’t much else available, but what about now? Now, when there is everything available? (Generally speaking, of course.) Is someone an artist when they don’t utilize the best material for what they are trying to say in a specific instance?

I guess what I am trying to say is this: I think a true artist has to consider not only what they want to say, but what rules of art they are following only because those are the generally understood guidelines. As in, am I painting this piece in an impressionist style because paint is the best way to express this idea, or just because everyone is painting like this lately? Am I writing this in free verse because free verse best captures the feeling of looseness (or, in Trey’s case with his recently posted poem, the feeling of not having even the will to make rhymes or a specific meter), or because I just kind of always write in free verse? Am I writing this music using a piano and guitar only because these are the generally used instruments of the time, or because the capture the essence of the feeling of this song better than, say, strings or random claps and a kalimba.

Of course, all of this is pretty relative. It’s just something I consider a lot.

Why does a basic band consist of a guitar, drums, vocals, bass, and some sort of piano?
Why are art and science the opposites of religion? (They used to be thought of together!)
Why do I only paint/draw nature lately?
Why are today’s trends pleasing now and not in 10 years?

I hope any of this makes sense.

In my Conceptual Art class, the professor says that true art is the expression of an idea, no matter what it actually looks like or how it happens, and references artists who have people cut pieces of their clothing off as performance art and draw/paint/photograph disgusting things that I do not want to see and praise the “shock factor” as being something that is jarring us as humans from our complacency.

Well, I am not okay with that. I feel like artists should be open to using the best medium necessary to carry out their idea, yes, and I think that art should evoke change in a human’s life, yes, but I think that the great goal of art is not to just jar humans out of some abstract complacency, but to change people for the better, to glorify God, and to remind people that there is something else besides themselves.

And just to clarify, I don’t think glorifying God with art necessarily looks like a cross or Bible verses with filigree all over the place. I think art can be glorifying to God without have Christian icons in it. After all, God’s creation tells of His glory.