I learned that art can be life changing and inspiring, even life saving, thanks the van Gogh's work when I was a young teenager.
By the time I was a young woman, having studied art intensely, Van Gogh's work and the work of many other artists had greatly impacted me. I felt that if I couldn't create something worthwhile, inspiring and uniquely my own contribution, I was not going to be an artist. I basically walked away from being an artist. The problem was not with my training or ability, but that I had nothing much wise or important to convey. I needed vision.
While others with not much to communicate but the ability to paint that very well, went on to successful careers, I demurred. Art was too important a form of communication, even truth, for me to paint just for the sake of painting. Somehow, I admit, I had a suspicion that I would one day find my own artistic path.
PBS is currently running a series entitled, How Art Made the World. It is hosted by art historian and University of Cambridge lecturer Dr. Nigel Spivey. Do catch it if you can. There's also a book available and probably a DVD set soon.
Last week I watched the episode "The Day Pictures Were Born," which explored according to the PBS web site:” When and why humans underwent what archeologists call the ‘creative explosion' and began making pictures. “
Now most of us were taught in art history, that the cave paintings were part of a initiation rite or else prehistoric man's attempt to record the history of an event, most likely their hunts.
However the program sheds new understandings of the paintings based upon understandings from cave paintings of indigenous peoples in South Africa and the American West.
The new findings make more sense. Apparently the shaman went away to a cave, climbing far into the earth, where they went on a vision quest. They were seeking an inner understanding or guidance for themselves and their peoples. The Shaman then recorded his visions and understandings on the cave walls. Thus, to again quote the PBS site, “paintings and the rock art discovered in South Africa and North America indicates that this ‘explosion' may have been an effort to depict sights from the inner - rather than outer - worlds of our ancient ancestors.”
In other words, for their cultures, Mankind's the earliest art was religious in nature. It was inspirational.
Fine art changed my world. Apparently, that's what art was originally meant to do from the very beginning.
July 11, 2006
