Art Is Life

Art is life, it is beauty, it is emotion, it is you, it is me, it is everything. Art defines all that we are, and all that we could become. Art is of the past and of the future, of the influences of our daily lives, of our pasts combined with who we are today. Art is an indescribable joy, an expansion of the mind, body and soul. We are art, every last individual of the human race. Art comes in the form of music, dance, theater, painting, drawing, blowing, throwing, and even in the math equations or scientific experiments of the right brained population. Art is feeling, seeing, smelling, tasting and hearing. Art is here to titillate our senses, to create emotional and physical reactions to the viewer. Art is healing. Art is loving. Art is… everything.

The Value of Art
After a distinctly self-contemplative night, I began to wonder what it is that attracts people to art. Certainly I consider myself an artist of sorts… but what is it that makes me an artist? Why do I practice art? Why does anyone immerse themselves in abstract activities that, for the most part, do not add to financial security or other measurable values?

We know that art has been around before written language. Ancient carvings and cave-wall paintings attest to an early drive to participate in artistic endeavors. I would say that our skills as artists have improved since the first cave paintings… but I think there must be the same seed of creativity that connects long forgotten ancestors and modern artists.

I think that the most obvious similarity is that dedicated artists tend to create art that reflects important aspects of their lives. When it comes to ancient man, what could have been more important than food and reproduction? Ancient art is ripe with images of hunting and pregnant women.

As human society evolved into more stable communities, the art changed. Over time the focus on survival was supplanted with self-emulation. In ancient Egypt, for example, the art turned to worshipping the