THOUGHTS ON ART

In our society we are flooded with junk art, pseudo-eccentric art forms. Art is a broad term, which may be interpreted in different ways, often relating to creativity, aesthetics and generation of emotion. Faith is a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny; complete confidence in a person or plan; loyalty or allegiance to a cause or a person.

Being an artist myself, I have found out it is essential to determine whether you have the mind set to be doing art for your own shake (career, money, position in society, exposure, etc.) or for a higher purpose ' like achieving connection with God; this act of art would be an act of faith and dedication to a higher purpose, i.e. to God.

This is not necessarily valid only for religious art the important is the motivation, which is lying under the act of art. In this sense, faith is not a passive element of the creative process. It can change and interact with this process and through it. History shows that faith gets stronger through difficulties and suffering. The suffering in life can bring a new power to art. It is not strange then that in order to achieve success an artist has to surpass a lot of difficulties and defeats. I will never forget a famous opera singer once telling me that in her life there has lived through much more unsuccessful situations than success. From her mouth this sounded funny but from the point of having faith in art it makes perfect sense in the jigsaw of life.

So what does it mean then to do art inspired by faith? It means to be tuned to such a degree that higher energy would flow into you; it means as an artist you have to be humble because you understand that what is given to you is not yours to have but to pass on. In this way art turns out to be an attempt to break the boundaries of day-to-day existence and self in a way that reaches out for the unreachable. This doesn't have to be necessarily a material goal. And here comes the question ' what is material? ' can this be the commercial side of art? And can there be a goal without fear of corrupting the essence of art?

The more you suffer, the more you need to realize your talent just for the sake of it and not with a particular goal in mind. Then as a result art itself can touch a wider audience with its truthfulness to its author and at the same time shows the author's faith in his abilities and in The Creator. There is no way to escape the "judgement of ones art ' humanly and Godly.

For the act of art in a strained condition of pain is except a desperate need for remedy even more so an act of faith in a positive outcome. Art without faith might be successful in the general sense of the word but in a way is bound to be of ungodly and daresay, untruthful origin because of its motivation going in s different direstion. In spite of the fact that whatever happens in an artist's mind is a mystery, even to himself as such, the ultimate realization of art does give us a brief glimpse over the artist's motivation and devotion to a higher cause. The result of an art form does emit a certain energy and with that art becomes not an artificial imitation of reality but a soulful projection of the spirit in matter. To produce such art is surely an aim of a lifetime.