Creativity and Human Splendor

 The consumption of art is among the purest human indulgences. The hunger for the most succulent delicacies of the human mind is and forever will be, insatiable. Every culture, of every time, everywhere, has participated in the gobbling of art in the vastness of forms it manifests. From the cave paintings of Lascaux, France, dating to 15,000 BC to Shepard Fairey's Obama campaign images, art is swimming through veins of all humans and it seems that the basic contagion for it is simply: vision.

                Artists represent, in their purest form, the relentless pursuit of the relief from isolation that all human beings engage in. They are the necessary idealists of a society, society: implying the giving up of one's personal passions in place of survival behaviors that enable us all to benefit-- the working survival machine. Whether their compulsion to create is born of a mental health defect, neurosis, or whathaveyou, the artist must create to survive, less they accept lesser levels of living--forms of life in which the preservation of their ideals and expressions of their beauty are replaced by  performing the means of strict surviving, a job that truly should be left to the "others". This is death for the artist, the loss of essence that some would say separates us from 'animals', in the insulting sense of the word. 
Without stopping to dispute what credentials qualify an artist to call his or herself an artists, it can be said that that essence is creativity and the artist is the person in society who's value is drawn purely from the compulsions of their own passion-- purely from the forms that are born as a product for and of themselves-- their pure expression. Herein lies the important distinction between artisan and artist. In pure aesthetic appreciation, artisan and artist can play on the same ball field. If one wishes to talk about the special qualities that artists possess, it lies in what is essentially their 
 
ego, which is to say that an artist's work is an extension of their ego, of their soul-- unbridled personal expression who's truth only the artist holds. And although both artisan and artist posses a level of creativity, this type of creativity is a purely self motivated force and yet greater and more important than any other human force available. It is the difference between a potter and a sculptor. If there is any quality that should be venerated in man, it is this. It is the expressions born from that quality that stops a person dead in their tracks, mouth gaping, eyes teary with awe and making them utter "Wow", dripping in reverence for the grandiose ambition of the human spirit. It is the greatest display of human splendor man can own. To create is to manifest the what the individual thinks the world ought have. It is the force that shapes in the world in the ways we see fit. Artist's (and artisan's) creativity is what turned earth into the Hagia Sophia and oil into The Kiss-- created so that we can discover meaning and relation in their work-- so that for those who cannot express the ineffable-- the liquid gold sensation sparked from the visceral kiss of one's sultry lover, or the astronomical ineptitude one feels when basking in reverential adulation for their god-- they can take solace in knowing that someone else has felt it too.

So why support them when they add nothing tangible to our survival machine? Because someone must be allowed to live for the creation of their ideals. Someone must do it for the rest those who haven't a passion for anything-- who haven't a compulsion to create more than the means of their own survival. We need someone to be out there, being a martyr, devoting their lives to themselves, to their work, so that we can look to it for inspiration, for guidance and for love-- so that we can have a direction. Imagine a world without movies, music, art, design, architecture, a world in which none spoke up to tell people where to go and how to go-- none to tell us what a cup or car or cellphone should look like--none to direct us--none casting into the world their own ideals for the scrutinizing world--none brave enough to extend their own egos into form in front of the eyes of humanity. It requires bravery to plaster your soul and thoughts into material and put it in front of the world to misunderstand and depreciate, a world tainted and ravenous. The artist is simultaneously selfless and selfish. The artist is the only creature that, through living for himself, lives for the world.

Klimt/ http://www.gustavklimtcollection.com/

Shepard Fairey/ http://www.shepardfaireyprints.com/?gclid=CNb3m7aKvaMCFRkcswodW187cA

Jess Soto/ http://www.jeffsoto.com/

Hagia Sophia/ http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/istanbul-hagia-sophia
Van Gogh/ http://www.vangoghgallery.com/