The Importance of Art

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. 

- Pablo Picasso

Humans need oxygen. We need it to breathe. We need water to replenish the water that we lose in everyday activities. We need food to convert to energy so we can keep moving. These things are vital - with at least these things alone, we can survive. Without a single one of them, or bodies will die.

But we are humans. We have large brains capable of analyzing our existence - questioning it, attempting to understand it, even enjoying it. As such, we need more than the simple basics. We need love. We need connection.

We need our passions.

I am a writer.

I don't mean this in the way Q means it in the movie Wonder Boys. I'm more likely to be Michael Douglas's character, turning to share a look with Tobey Maguire:

What I mean is that writing is my passion. Writing is my art. Writing feels as though it's as important to me as oxygen, as water, as food. I am an artist, and writing is my art.

When I can't write I begin to feel stale - like the world is slightly off around me. Nothing is as crisp and fresh anymore. I feel like I'm being compressed by the world - I need the words to bring me back to a state where I can function again.

This isn't a new concept. I haven't had this conversation with an artist yet who didn't get wide-eyed and agree with me - and I don't just mean other writers. Painters. Photographers. Musicians. 

And yet, art is more than simply that thing we do because we have no other choice. Art is the medium through which we question, analyze, define, and finally understand the meaning of our existence: those things our brains are finally big enough to do. 

The reason that art (writing, engaging, and all of it) 
is valuable is precisely why I can’t tell you how to do it. 
If there were a map, there’d be no art, 

because art is the act of navigating without a map.

- Seth Godin

Mariel Cove itself is a piece of art - a book, a collection of writing written by artists who call themselves writers. And, Mariel Cove is full of artists - fictional artist characters who come from a variety of artistic backgrounds: metal sculpting, painting, writing, photography, beading, music...

Their arts are used in different manners - some to make a point, some to speak truth about the world to themselves, some simply because it aches when they don't - but one thing they all share is a feeling of importance regarding their art. The art, at least to themselves, has some deep meaning that necessitates its creation, the same way Mariel Cove had deep meaning to the writers - and to its original creator. The same way art always has been and always will be important to its artists.




Sources:

Wonder Boys. Dir. Curtis Hanson. Perf. Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Francis McDormand, Robert Downey Jr., Katie Holmes. Paramount Pictures, 2000. YouTube Clip.