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45,000 years later --- Why Humans Create Art, Part II By Janet Buckingham
Last month we traveled to some overseas caves with rock art over 45,000 years old. This month I was planning on returning to the past, but, relatively speaking, a more recent past during which I could discover and share when artists began transitioning to substrates other than rock. However, spring got in the way. There were carrots to be planted and weeds to be pulled and I just couldn't make myself crawl around in the dusty attics of research. Instead, I'm returning to the original intent of this two part blog which was to discuss why humans create art. In my giant launch forward I've landed in 2022. What's 45,000 years give or take?
I'm leaving the question of why early humans created art on rock walls far, far behind and thinking about why modern humans create art. The cool thing about this question is that there are as many answers as there are artists and there are a LOT of artists in the world. The National Endowment for the Arts reported that in 2019 there were approximately 5 million workers employed in arts and cultural industries. Of course, that includes a broad brush stroke of jobs that far exceed painters, sculptors, potters, photographers and so forth. But that number also does not account for those of us who are not officially employed in what can be considered arts and culture industries; there are millions more of us who create in studios, patios, laundry rooms, garages, or by the side of a creek. We never receive a W-2 or get a paycheck. That number would be countless.
If you do a search on Etsy.com for "paintings," it results in 2,238,114 hits. Sculpture: 44,961 results. Photography: 659,437 results. Pottery: 807,537,010. Art and collectibles: 13,537,010. That's about how many answers there would be to the question: Why do humans create art?
To narrow the field (and my task) a bit, I asked Gallery Moab artists that question: Why do you create art? Peggy Harty, our gallery manager, a pastel artist and quilter, said this: "For me, doing art is about beauty. Trying to express that would be my statement to the world, nothing heavy or symbolic with hidden messages. Like all artists I love color and texture. The more I do art, the more I notice. Hopefully the more I do, the more I will grow into my own expressions. For now my painting is mostly representational. The joy of discovery and conquering the challenge keeps an artist moving forward."
"Spring in Professor Valley", Pastel by Peggy Harty
"Poppy Convergence" By Peggy Harty
Page Holland, an oil painter among our ranks, was able to answer in one word: color. "Many, many times I have decided to give up painting. However, I am constantly mixing color in my head. Is that blue grey more cobalt, ultramarine - wait, yeah. I see a touch of phthalo. I simply have to give my brain time to mix the paint." Wouldn't it be fascinating to be a fly on the wall in one of Page's nocturnal dreams?Page Holland, an oil painter among our ranks, was able to answer in one word: color. "Many, many times I have decided to give up painting. However, I am constantly mixing color in my head. Is that blue grey more cobalt, ultramarine - wait, yeah. I see a touch of phthalo. I simply have to give my brain time to mix the paint." Wouldn't it be fascinating to be a fly on the wall in one of Page's nocturnal dreams
?
"The Bright Angel Appears," 20 X 16, oil, by Page Holland. Available at Gallery Moab
Marsha Modine, who works in acrylic, answered this way: "I do art because it evokes emotion. I pick my subjects because I feel an emotional connection, so I attempt to infuse the canvas with what I feel."
"Wildfire Sunset" 12 X 9 acrylic by Marsha Modine
Carolyn Tibbetts, who creates stunning oil paintings that grace Gallery Moab walls said "the reason I create art is it's the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. I have had a deep love of art and creating art ever since I could first hold a crayon. When I paint, I am at one with my canvas and pallet and all the stress of the day evaporates." This echoed another thought from Peggy Harty: "There is a sort of meditation involved with the process. One escapes into the world of creation. Time and thoughts of day-to-day worries go away until exhaustion hits." Picasso would agree. He said "art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."
"The Mittens Monument Valley" by Carolyn Tibbetts
Peggy touches on my own reasons for creating art. It's the most Zen-like state I can achieve. I am a professional worrier. I analyze everything and endlessly seek answers. I'll do research until my fingers bleed. But when I write, paint, or sew, I'm in a world where wars, pandemics, politics and yes, even laundry melt away. It brings peace to my life except for when I'm thinking what to create next. I've learned this about myself: I am driven by creating something that was not there before. Like Page, I think about creating art all the time. I craft poems in my sleep. I construct collages and build altered books as I drink my morning coffee and shake off the night (and finish Wordle). Once I get an idea about a piece of art, whether textile or watercolor, it percolates, constructing itself in both my subconscious and conscious thought. Something has to be done with all of these ideas so I begin scratching in my journal, painting at my easel, or sewing at my machine.When I think about it, it sounds a bit mentally unsound. If that be the disease, art is the cure. For me, art and gardening hold the same allure. And actually, aren't they similar? I'm still creating something where once there was nothing. Neil Gaiman said: "The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before." To this I say a resounding yes!
"Deep in The Canyon" watercolor/ink by Janet Buckingham
Many other artists create to invoke a reaction, including perhaps making a political statement. Few people could argue the fact that art is a mechanism to create beauty and emotion, but can't it also be a historical record of our lives? Through art we express ourselves, our experiences and memories, but collectively, a snapshot - or perhaps it's more of a retrospective - of our culture evolves from the creation of art. We can walk through a museum and see an artistic essay, for example, of clothing and fashion over the millennial. We can see changes in farming technique through paintings of the harvest. We recognize how entertainment has evolved from elegantly dressed and hatted madams and monsieurs strolling on the Champs-Elysee to dancing with wild abandon in the roaring 20s. Perhaps most important for me and generations to come is that we can walk through an art museum and see how life used to be. It's kind of like putting a rotary dial telephone or typewriter in front of a 12-year-old in 2022!
"The Problem We All Live With" 36' X 58' oil on canvas originally painted for the cover of Look Magazine in 1964 photo from BYU Magazine
“Massacre in Korea” 43.3” x 82.7” oil on plywood 1951 Pablo Picasso
Political art, too, serves a large role in preserving culture through depiction of upheaval and revolution. Think about Norman Rockwell's 1964 painting, "The Problem We All Live With," a powerful image of the civil rights movement.Pablo Picasso, who was an avid opponent of the U.S, involvement in the war in Korea, painted "Massacre in Korea" in 1950. I could fill every white space on this page with an example of political art whether it be about human rights, environmental compromise, feminism, gender identity, revolution - well, you get the idea. Banksy, the street artist who painted the iconic "Flower Bomber" symbolic of throwing flowers at the establishment had this to say about art: "Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable." It is becoming clear that an abundance of new art will be created as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Postcard to Ukraine" textile 20 X 16 NFS (Will be on display at the Moab Museum May 1-May 30. Proceeds from sale will be donated to Ukrainian Relief)
On April 3, 2022, Jon Batiste, Louisiana musician, performer and graduate of the famous The Julliard School said upon winning a Grammy for best album of the year, "The creative arts are subjective and they reach people at a point in their lives when they need it most."
I think Batiste's observation can easily apply to both artists and lovers of art. A painting, a poem, or a song appears when a person needs to be soothed, but alternatively, perhaps nearly simultaneously, the impulse to create a certain piece of art comes to an artist in a dream tailored to quiet not only his or her soul, but ours.
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