What does Art mean to us? (Featuring author @infinitor)
Since the prehistoric days, humans have needed a medium to express themselves.
Whether it be a wall, a piece of paper, radio, television, or even internet, these were all invented as a way to let us express our emotions and feelings, our views, thoughts, and ideas. Ancient Egyptians used wall scriptures, we use paper. It's the same thing. Both are used to express our thoughts, to record history, and to write stories and craft fictional universes. At the root of it all is the invention of writing.
The glorious invention of writing
Writing is said to have been originated in two places: in Mesopotamia in 3200 BC and in Meso-america in 600 BC. It really is a sort of companion-piece to language. What cannot be expressed through words is expressed far more brutally, harshly, ruthlessly, and terrifyingly through words. Writing has helped immensely in recording history which has provided us insight on how various events took place which I think is something that often goes unappreciated. It has provided us a sort of escape through our lives. Not only can we be lost in the lives of other real, and historical entities but also in the lives of fictional ones.
It's like walking through dimensions and donning the flesh of another person, to walk a mile in their shoes, to understand their difficulties, comforts, and hardships. To me, that is what great writing is, really. Writing gives birth to ideas which incite revolutions and uprisings. For an oppressed and enslaved nation, writing is the most precious luxury they can every collectively imagine. It helps in the formation of ideas which ignite a spirit of freedom in them which in turn, is the very fuel of uprisings. It helps that enslaved nation to imagine what they could not before, what was forbidden for them.*** What could have been.***
Although, writing is a great form of expression, it is not the only form of expression. Paintings, movies, songs, plays, radio-plays are forms of expression too. These help us not only in the lows of life but also in the ups.
Art
"Art" originates from a Latin words artem or ars. Art is an artist's way of expressing his views, opinions, thoughts, and ideas to the audience. Art has been instrumental in the history of mankind. It has never failed to capture the moment - whether it was a moment of sheer brutality and violence or a moment of sheer joy and happiness - so accurately and in detail, that it speaks to the audience. It tells stories of its own. Most importantly, it teaches us historical lessons that we should not forget.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Painters have never failed to play an important role in forging the history of mankind. By capturing moments with absolute sincerity, painters cage the spirit of those moments in their paintings. This spirit is generally what blows life into the painting.
Paintings don't speak to us at a merely physical level, they speak to us on a moral, ethical, and spiritual one. It's kind of what historical movies are doing in this age. Like paintings before them captured the spirit of the moment, movies that remain true to the historical events portray fear, nervousness, accomplishment, success, failure, happiness, and sadness of those events. That is, if those movies are not modified and adjusted for the sake of "pleasure" of the audience. For instance, the landing scene in Saving Private Ryan. The reason I think that paintings and writings triumph over movies is that they have no imaginatory and budgetary constraints. You can literally write/paint anything and everything that you can ever imagine without worrying if someone will green-light it or if you'd have enough money to write/paint it. This is what makes writings and paintings so powerful. The artist pours his heart out on that canvas. And such a work is produced that is honored for centuries and generations to come.
So, what does Art mean to humans?
Art has never failed to capture the very fabric of the culture of mankind. This could even be held true in the pre-history. The megalithic complex of Stonehenge, and the Great Pyramids of Giza are few examples that spring to mind. The epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey and Illiad by Homer are some of the epic sagas that are still to this day considered the best of what literature has to offer. To sum up, our ancestors and us have produced and continue to produce art that not only grasps our past and present culture firmly, but also contains warnings for us and our successors, it contains stories so that we may learn valuable lessons from them.
Did you know? The Odyssey and the Illiad by Homer are parts of an eight-part saga. The other parts have not been found and are considered to be lost to the ages.
I think that art is something that has brought humans to where they are now. It has played a giant part in making man leap from Earth to the moon and back. All of this progress of man owes, in part, to art. Art has become a major and essential part of our daily lives. It has reached that point that we can safely say that art and appreciation for art are some of the things that make a human human.
@dragonslayer109 features authors to promote new authors and a diversity of content. ALL STEEM Dollars for this post go to the featured author
Don't just follow me, follow the author as well, if you like their post - @infinitor. Thank you
Nice work! Off topic: How long does it take to get paid on posts now? I still haven't been paid on a post I made 1 day ago that earned over $200.
Click on the dollar value. A pop-up will show you when you will be paid.
Does an artist create art for themselves or for the art lovers?
I think that an artist creates art for the sake of art itself. He creates art both, for himself and for the art lovers.
I agree with @infinitor. Creating art for the sake of art is different from creating art for oneself. If you lose the ability to communicate something through your art to others, or if they have to work too hard to get something out of it, it's less valuable as art. Look at Infinite Jest -- it had the potential to be a great work of art but it was just DFW writing what he felt like writing without considering his audience and communicating something valuable to them. I heard people who knew him say that he often wrote what he wrote mainly because he liked the way he felt when he was writing it.
I like to think that i create my art for the world and no-one specifically. There is certainly some pleasure in creating and a will to influence things, so in a sense you make for your self - though there are deep struggles that make you question the meaning of it all.
For anyone interested on this I am dropping it here
Steemit's weekly art awards. you are all welcome.
The eye image and the boulevard with the sun are fantastic. The post is rather good too!
Art for me is anything that evokes a sense of awe, wonder and beauty.
This was great!! Wasa visual artist myself that paints i think art ia an extremely important part of life and should be enjoyed by all....but of course my opinion may be biased :)
Beautiful art and interesting post. To me art is a means of communication. That said each will look at the piece and it will reveal different to each.