Recently I went away with a group of friends to an area that is surrounded by National Parks and beautiful beaches. We rented (well they rented and I now owe them my life...) a beautiful house in a beautiful part of a beautiful Bay. With this beauty comes tourists renting out holiday houses and with this comes the inevitable beach themed art. Now I don't care what your personal taste is and what you want to put in your home and whether or not you and your partner had a fight over whether it would go with the bench tiles or not. But I do care that this simple act of hanging a picture on the wall will prompt everyone to have an opinion about it. Which is exactly what this picture did. It begun the debate that WILL NEVER BE WON (as long as people keep thinking that their opinions are better than others even though it is subjective) about what makes art 'good'. Among us was an art teacher who's arguments were much more structured than the rest of us (even though much wine had been consumed) tried to explain that fine art was the result of something - an idea, a theme or whatever it is that the artist is doing - growing and constantly evolving. Which for acting is ridiculously true! Actors that stay stagnate and stop learning are their own worst enemy! My point today is not about acting, rather just the form of any sort of art being allowed to simply 'be'. To simply be allowed to be beautiful or ugly or world changing. In individual eyes or public shared eyes. Art shouldn't always be (although it always WILL be)subjected to the opinion of having to have a 'point, reason or emotion' behind it. Art and religion and propaganda have always gone hand in hand and they will continue to do so. Art however individually should be allowed to exist as beauty, or a passion or stress relief. Personal opinions will always vary and you don't have to like it, but you can't stand in the way of someone else liking it. Otherwise we would all have the same pictures on our wall and the same music in our (insert personal music player here) and the same movies. That is boring.
The reason I bring this up is because this morning I was watching 'The Newsroom' and I was really overcome with the power of humanity of one of the characters. It really was beautiful. And although a political act started the act of humanity, the result was a moment in television that was simply just beautiful. This moment needed no explanation, no hype, no pat on the back - no debate. It was allowed to be. the artful moment when silence said everything, was simple allowed to exist. Maybe some people hated it and though it showed a wekness in someone who was introduced as an asshole. Maybe others though it predictable and sentimental. That in itself is what should give art the right to 'be'.
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