Burning Drafts

In theory, aesthetic perception elevates experience.

That one may realize such elevation in experiential reality is fact, yet it is not effortless, requiring some critical thought with regard to multifarious ideas. and therefore it is the common experience of but few.

It is revealing how often those who lavish praise upon the "elite" athlete are quick to condemn the arduous efforts and work of the thinking individual, whether in the arts or other fields of endeavor.

Expression as Disputation

Consider the possibility of irreversible intellectual decline.

Contrast present cultural perspectives with objective experience.

Expression, Conscience, Permanence

Certain arts reflect nothing more than the transient character of culture.

Other, more noble arts, speak to the elevation of culture and the individual, together and separately.

Stand, Fall, Rise

Art will be, or it will not be; brazen attitude will not hide failure, nor timidity grasp success.

Cultures and societies may be oppressed, or coerced into self-censorship, but art obeys the law of the individual artist.

Expression, Impact, Integrity

Reality and the artist's imagination are the sources of art.  This is my judgement.  Others are free to deny it, whatever their inclination may be towards the subject.

I am the originator of the work, and the work is my responsibility.

These are things within my power, my knowledge and my control.  Among the things outside my power are the opinions of listeners, the intellectual and emotional projections they may place upon the works, and the manner in which the works are received generally. This is to say that I bring forth the works as they are, and that whatever they may become is out of my hands.

One may well assert that such points are given, and unnecessary; one will be reminded, however, that it is effortless indeed to call day, night, and night, day.

In point of fact, such is the nugatory perspective of the foolish and the intentionally false, those who would indiscriminately influence the easily led for their own ends.

And this, certainly, is not the way of art, but of something else entirely.

Choice, Pressure

There is subtlety of expression, contrasting spectacle, to be experienced.

But culture everywhere at all times falls short of the visions of art.  This is nothing new.  No culture is viewed by objective standards as thoroughly "enlightened", and it is for the wise artist to grasp that the mediocre is the regular fare, and mundane, whether in extravagant or casual forms. It is only over extended periods of time that cultures acclimate to forward-thinking and visionary expressions.

Undreaming

The modern artist cannot fall prey to complacency.

Art reflects and expresses the failures of human cultures as well as their aspirations.