Agency

Vanity and money are undeniably powerful motivations for creativity.

The creative act in the service of a higher vision is its own motivator.

Up for Air

Artful contrivance is not the central fact of cultural expression.

That central perspective is, and always is, reserved for expressions of authentic experience, as opposed to mere appearances, no matter how refined, raw, or superficially impressive.

Among many things easily observed, the continuing decline in cinematic arts attests to this.

Grotesques

There is no individuality within collective strictures, nor can there be.

Yet this does not apply to appearances, as these are by nature insignificant in contrast to conformity of collective thought, expression, and action.  A spurious, superficial "sense of personal identity" is conferred by acceptance of infantile extravagances. Countenance and bearing are of little moment to those who define social and cultural agendas, provided absolute conformity to ideology remains fully intact. Consequently, the apparently extreme, distorted, and abnormal become commonplace, and the slavish adherent to illiberal groupthink is as easily identifiable as a traitor to humanity as the nameless, faceless apparatchik.

The independent thinker, artist, warrior, and self-reliant individual, on the other hand, defies both illegitimate authority and mundane expectations. The very existence of free culture demands this.

Projection vs. Awareness

It is ignorance, or a lack of intelligence, to approach any artistic work with assumptions of any kind.

Artistic works, paintings, music, performance, mixed media, etc. only suffer when crafted for the purpose of serving social and political agendas.  What may "make a statement" as propaganda is nonetheless transient as "art".  Of even less value is the assessment or opinion regarding a work that is based upon such ideological conventions, which are as insignificant as mere subjective biases.

What is demanded of the artist is equally expected of the observer, and that is aesthetic perception.

If You Look Closely

Consider a social and cultural environment that is actively hostile to the arts.

Suppression of individual freedom is the outcome of collective tyranny and its concomitant control of expression that reduces every work to a form of propaganda.

It is a monumental challenge to stand against a tide of surrender.

Edge of Perception

Know the concrete and the abstract of the phenomena of appearances.

Awareness of the cultural environment is the difference between freedom of action and acting according to the influences of forces neither recognized nor understood.

Metaphysical Approach

A contemplative aesthetic elevates sense of being.

This is an objective like every other aesthetic purpose, and will not be denied those who seek it, whether artist or audience, unless and until a culture has totally lost the wherewithal to accept and embrace it.

Presence

Expression conveys the observer within reach of experience.

Culture may or may not make that expression accessible; the observer may or may not extend grasp. Nonetheless, it is impossible to reduce all aesthetic possibilities to a point at which the ignorant and illiterate can comprehend them. There are ideas and experiences that can never be transmitted in their entirety through choreographed dance moves.

Art of Flux

In dysfunctional cultural conditions, the artist is an island of energy.

Bounded by absurdity and failure, that is to say, failure of the culture to thrive without direction, the artist, like the military strategist, brings reason, experience, and foresight to the creative act.

This is the essential nature of expression both critical and independent, without which cultures are entirely lost.  Many will recognize this loss of once-thriving cultural settings within living memory, with the understanding that the surrender of personal freedoms brought about these extinctions.

As far as cultures of free individuals are concerned, the artist is the last line of defense, the last stand against encroaching darkness.

Enough

The antithesis of the creative act is the dismissal of the reality of Time Past.

Beyond the benighted repudiation of cultural fundamentals, of much more profound moment is the elimination of cultural momentum, the negation of future possibility.

Observe contemporary cultural and social conditions.

The Great Work

No present-day artist and composer can ignore cultural decline.

At issue is not commercialism, but essential human knowledge.  This is an era burdened by mediocrity and superficiality in every area of endeavor.  As an artist, explorer, innovator, or independent thinker, one must rise to enormous challenges, if for no other reason than one's obligation to oneself.

Dharma for One

Boethius (A.D. 480-525) suggests the arts, particularly music, are revealing as means to transcendental contemplation and perspective.

But certainly the failed Nineteenth Century ideologies of scientific materialism and collectivism will not allow for such considerations.  The individual, however, retains personal freedom and choice.

Impulse, Elevation, and Decline

Every artistic gesture represents choice and purpose.

Simply put, expression in all the arts may enhance or diminish a sense of shared culture.

Directions and Outcomes

Progress is not mere prolongation.

Progress is marked by advancement, improvement, development and exploration; anywhere time has passed on any aspect of culture without these virtues evolving, vision and wisdom are not recognized, because freedom of thought and action are suppressed.

Among the myriad negative aspects of collective stasis now witnessed everywhere, the failure to comprehend possibilities cannot be accepted or tolerated.

Thought and Memory

Individual expression demands objectivity and integrity, or it will not be.

Such things as awareness and skills can not be taken, but they may be surrendered.

Unreal State

Art is beyond ideology.  Art is far beyond ideology, and far removed from it.

Certainly it will be called art, among other things.  But the artist knows ideology as waste, transient, unimaginative, humorless, and dull-witted delusion, an execrable quest for power founded in ignorance and masked as knowing.

To Choose The Real

Original expression may be overshadowed by the mundane, but it never dies.

Art, as an expression of truth, will never yield to the spurious, the specious, and the false.

What Is, What Is Not

The artist is often called upon to make a distinction between appearance and reality.

It is understood that art is a representation, and that this understanding is a responsibility of vision, not mere propaganda to be manipulated for some other purpose.  To do less is its own punishment.

Approaching the Mystic

Think of that which is greater than the self.

In life, perceive accordingly; in art, give expression to those perceptions.

Likenesses

The only choice is action.  The choice is always action.

Regardless of social and cultural conditions, art asserts perspective.  It was ever thus.