Art, Not Art.

You know, I have to applaud your pleasant manner Caia. I thought I was quite blunt and would have accepted an equally blunt response! I would have told me where to go 😆

Re art, not art; there is a question of time to be considered here. In recent years I have come to question the legitimacy of our widely held concept of time as a linear transition of life through some sort of universal constant over which we have no control. Studies in quantum gravity apparently have shown that this idea is flawed. My personal life experience tells me that time does not exist, only a single and infinite moment of now, out of which everything “happens”. Life, for me, seems to be a single dynamic happening pulsating out from me in all directions, and for every point of consciousness, there is a unique “happening”.

So now, examining the phenomenon and definition of art; it seems to me that art is a direct materialisation of psychic, non-material things — ideas, a seeking of the self in a physical world. I see the material world as the outer most expression of the non-material, of that thing we just can’t seem to reach. So when we allow this self to create in the only moment that ever exists or ever has existed, without ulterior motive, we have the chance to create art.

I like to believe when an artist does this they have a chance to connect with others who are open to seeing what the artist sees. I think art exists once it is made with the free mind of someone who is, you could say, egoless.

Ok, so say I’m in a competitive domain. I make furniture for a living and I need to bring in the bacon so I see what’s popular and easily made and I churn out a few thousand items. Stack ’em high and sell ’em low. I’m not making art, I’m making shit. There’s no love in that. There’s no self, there’s no spirit. It’s material for material sake in the pursuit of the abstract.

“Yeah, but you can’t feed yourself if you rely on art alone”, they say. I dunno… I haven’t exactly figured it out yet, but there has to be a way to live a good and engaged life creating art and make a good living too.

I have kind of gone off the point now, but that’s the nature of conversation, right?

I’m gonna write on this topic today methinks. Thanks, Caia Payne