if art really matters

There is a sad and subtle war going on, and it is now time we all must choose a side.

Before you think I'm going to offer up some deep thoughts on aesthetics or art philosophy, this is not a defense of art or a declaration of why it is important. If you do not believe art matters, then you are lost already. You have chosen your side. You are dismissed.

However, if you believe art does matter, your belief is not enough.

Perhaps the war for art is already lost, I don't know. I know people who believe that. They believe everything I fight for with my site and my magazine is a waste of my time and resources. They believe this not because they don't believe in what I'm doing, but because they feel it is already too late, and it won't make any difference.

So, how do I know what side of the fight you're on? How do I determine who is with me? First shouldn't I answer what art is? Why it means?

Perhaps, but I'm not sure those answers clarify much of anything. My definition of art is very broad, and my tendency is to accept that an artist is who-so-ever decides to be one. But this is irrelevant. Bad art, foolish critics, and stupid people pretending to be artists are destroying our culture.

Yes, there is such a thing as bad art. If you do not believe that there is such a thing as bad art: thank you, you're dismissed.

No is not completely subjective. If you believe it is completely subjective: thank you, you're dismissed.

By this point, I am sure many have mentally tuned this out, or stopped reading all together, and that's fine, they've chosen their side in this war.

What is the fight? The fight to create things of enduring beauty and relevance. To celebrate inspired and inspiring work that lifts up humanity. To recognize what is most special and hold it up as a beacon to guide us to be more than we are.

And some will say, Why do the previous statements matter, most everyone is on the same side of that fight? Because if there is no standard, no commonly held belief in what is great art, then the rest is a lie.

Buying pathetic amateurish art and saying it is wonderful demeans all the truly wonderful art. Telling an artist that his 'chair painted purple and covered in white roses' is a brilliant anti-war statement belittles the art which truly is brilliant.

I am not defending, promoting or attacking art schools or art training. I do not put down the highly-educated, the papered and certified, the self-taught, the un-taught, or the unconventional. But I think it is important for all who seek to make the world a better place to demand that greatness is more than 'decent' or 'adequate.'

As a poet and a writer, it might seem a stretch for me to comment and much such all-encompassing statements regarding all art, particularly as I often make the distinction that these are crafts. The distinction between art and craft might indeed be both valid and important, but I'll leave that to you to decide. I think quality is the most vital first step to resuscitating our culture. And that is not dependent on the media, the method or the message.

Critics can rationalize and distract with fancy words and convoluted theories, and the vast majority of society will flap along behind them parroting their voices until every fool believes the lie of adequacy. The critics will be obvious as they glorify messages which mimic their world view over method and media. This is damaging, no doubt. The so-called artist they glorify will be the dregs and the mediocre. The signal of the gray flat nothing will be loud, and the noise so endless that greatness will be forever lost in a fog of nothing.

The new glorified artists declare themselves the new masters, and at their feet students flock and take up the banner of nothing and proclaim their drivel classic. This is not a future tense. This is now.

Even this very moment new poets swarm to the 'published poets' and the banality of half-wit professors professing a new liturgy devoid of an understanding of past masterworks. The celebration of the me-generations of the 50s, 60s, 70s... to present destroys the foundation upon which their work should have been informed.

Critics celebrate squares on colored backgrounds that our 4-year-olds could make as easily, and splatters our dogs can create. Idiot savants find poetry in the spew of computers and tiny-brained thinkers scream out that the audience makes the art.

What the audience perceives is more important than the message of the artist, who can possibly argue with such delightfully democratic ideals.

If i like it, it is good art. This is the message. Composition. Clarity, Craftmanship. Technique. Complexity. And, perhaps above all, beauty. These don't matter. It is all individual taste. The standards float lost and forgotten in a sea of plebeian wailing for recognition of their own special gray nothings.

The decay of greatness into a bland elegant all embracing elephantine fecal spew is soft, sweetly scented and subtle. Perhaps it is too late to re-educate. Perhaps there are no true masters left and it is only apprentices wearing the masters robes who wander the town square as happy idiots.

Maybe you can answer that or me, I don't know. Still, I say, if you are still here, if this makes any sense to you at all, then it is time to ask some questions:

1) Do you look at art, be it visual, aural or written and judge it in relation to the great works of the past? (As opposed to merely critically acclaimed contemporary work, or worse still, to some perceived average work.)

2) Do you compliment people who attempt art and call them artists, rather than offer them substantial criticism and real comment that helps them realize how far they have to go before they are great?

3) Don't you judge your own creations with a cold eye and realize the true level of the work in relation to the greatest works throughout history?

4) Don't you demand that art inspire?

5) Don't you demand that art have clear meaning?

6) Don't you demand that art be beautiful?

7) Do you strike out with your own opinion on works of art -- willing to stand up and celebrate art that you feel is exceptional -- regardless what the opinions of the masses might be?

8) Don't you hold back the honored title of artist rather than bestow it on everyone who creates anything that might be called art?

9) Don't you actively search out the great works of art and try to learn why they are great, then apply that knowledge as you find art in the world?

10) Do you truly believe art matters?

If you can't answer yes to all those questions, then you're dismissed.

Otherwise, welcome to the fight.