Art, Beauty and Truth

During the activity that we did in class late last week, we discussed the relationship between art, beauty and truth.  This activity was enlightening in that it brought together a variety of perspectives, and plotted them on a focused diagram.   The outcome of the activity was a single set of points that encompassed a far greater perspective than any single one of us could create.   This observation raises an interesting point about the meanings of art, beauty and truth: They mean greatly different things to different people.  However, there is a common thread that connects each of these ideas to one another.

Art is simply the manifestation of man’s creativity.   Sculpture, painting, and music are all forms of art.  One of the characteristics of art is that it holds a degree of beauty.   Art evokes an emotional response to each and every one of us.  While this emotional reaction might vary in strength and impact, art in one form or another generates an impact on us.   An interesting observation that can be made depending on our perspectives of the world is that mathematics or other technical achievements can be looked upon as art.  Certain proofs or infrastructure projects can be viewed as being true pieces of art.  This reveals that art holds beauty.   An engineer might look at the Hoover Dam and look at it as a piece of art because of the raw beauty that it holds in their minds. 

Beauty characterizes something that evokes a powerful, positive emotional response.   When referring to an individual, beauty is often thought of coming in two forms: external and internal.  Similarly, a piece of art can be skillfully intricate or impressive and visually beautiful or it could hold a deep symbolic meaning.  In this case, both sides of the spectrum could be characterized as being beautiful.  Our reaction to beauty is somewhat uncontrollable.   

When something reveals the truth, it reveals a fundamental fact from a certain perspective.  Truth can be either a scientific fact or it can be a fact from a certain perspective.   Art and truth hold a closely interweaved perspective:  Art reveals truth.  When an artist shares a certain perspective about death, love or envy, they are revealing a fundamental truth through their perspective.  Similarly, the relationship between beauty and truth is simple: Truth can be beautiful.   When you reveal a certain observation about the universe that otherwise isn’t obvious, it can be construed as beautiful. 

There is a close relationship between art, beauty and truth.  This relationship ultimately reveals that we as humans are constantly looking to explore our universe and our own selves.  By diving further and further into the study of art and our minds, we come to understand who we are.  

The Triune

In thinking of what to write for this post about art, beauty, and truth and the relationship between them, I was struck by the idea of relating, or personifying, them to the Christian Trinity. The Trinity is made up by the Father (God), the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit, also known as the Holy Ghost, which are all each their own being, but make up one supernatural being (which, this is a concept humanity cannot begin to grasp - it’ll make one’s head hurt trying to think about it deeply). The point being: though separate beings, they combine in a  relationship, making up one being, but each are unique and divine, having their own roles in humanity. When I think about art, beauty, and truth I can’t help but think back to what I believe, the roots of each are. In the case of personifying each subject, I think of God as beauty, Jesus Christ the truth, and the Holy Spirit - free and flowing - as art.

In talking about the Holy Spirit, the Spirit is an aspect still mysterious to the human mind. It is the side of the Trinity that identifies as a person (he), the aspects of personhood (feelings, speaks, has knowledge), an animal form (the dove), an equal level to God the Father, and much more. Like art, the Holy Spirit is free and flowing, as I’ve said before. Art expresses different sides of an individual - the person’s form, thoughts, emotions, and so forth. Art always has a mystery and truth to it, because to each person, there’s some sort of meaning and form of themselves put into it. What is truthfully derived from human thought and emotion and then is portrayed on a canvas, piece of paper, or through steps on a stage reflects a sort of inner beauty, as well as outer beauty by the grace and eloquence seen.

Moving onto Jesus Christ, the aspects of the son of God and how he relates to truth is shown by the way he lived his life here on earth and gives humans a visual of God, in part, and can relate to humanity, as he was one of us at one point - still is, but now resides in heaven with his Father. While on earth, Jesus lived his life truthfully, or in accordance with his Father’s will - fulfilling the prophecies, living by the rules laid out by God, given to humanity as an example of how we should live, and living a life of perfection; without sin or lies. Jesus testified to the Bible and the facts, as well as wisdom, given within it.  He came and lived, becoming the way, the truth, and the life of which humans must approach in order to join in the beautiful and life-changing relationship with God the Father.

In God representing beauty, he represents it due to the fact that he is seen everywhere in this world - in creation. Creation as a whole has an aesthetic about it that is unexplainable, particularly the human being, who is created in His image, that shows an overwhelming sense of beauty. Nature itself has a perfection and purity to it that suggests beauty. The Father represents beauty as He made us to be captivated by his art (mainly the Spirit), crave the truth (the Son), and be enraptured by his beauty, which wouldn’t be possible without the captivation and truth seen in the other two parts. Each part makes the other whole; without one, the other would not be present. There is a flawlessness to every aspect - a graceful element that gives way to the fact that there’d be no harmony in truth without beauty, no pleasure in art without beauty, and no elegance in beauty without truth or art.

It's All Connected

        Though the concepts of art, beauty, and truth are all completely different from each other, they are all connected in someway or another. We cannot have one concept without the other, they are all intertwined with each other. Though one may have more connections with one than the other, one thing is true of them all; our perceptions of art, beauty, and truth are a part of what makes us humans.

        Art, is such a broad thing to define, because almost anything can be art; visual arts, writing, music, and dancing. But to be art, it must stir emotion, both in the artist and the viewer. Art is the manifestation of our emotions, it's something we pour our passions into. Art can be seen as a beautiful thing, especially to the one who views, hears, or is touched by it. Art can also reveal a certain truth, the inner truth behind the artist; the artist may share details of themselves through art, for the viewer to seek the truth for themselves.

        The concept of beauty is unique in the fact that it can be defined in an infinite amount of possibilities that it is impossible to truly defines. The beauty in something or someone must be sought out individually; what one deems to be beautiful, another may not. Beauty can be found in almost everything, nature, a person, a thought, a sound. Art can be beautiful in so many different ways, it is almost hard to imagine having art without beauty, and beauty without art. Pure beauty can reveal the truth in something, while our physical beauty can hide it.

       Truth is something many people spend their lives looking for, but may never find it. But it can be found anywhere, in nature, in painting, beauty, and even within ourselves. We seek things that we find to be true about the world, and ourselves, and often we can find that through art. All three concepts are so interrelated that it can be hard to imagine one without the other.

Firmament

As I have mentioned before I am writing about parallel mythology from around the world. I have decided to focus on the infatuation that ancient cultures had with the sky and the celestial bodies that orbit our earth. My second book was Mythology: The Illustrated Anthology of World Myth & Storytelling. It is almost 700 pages long, so I didn’t read the whole thing, but I read all the Myths that mentioned the words sky, heaven, moon, sun, astronomy, moon, stars, constellations, thunder, etc. The book obviously has a huge range of mythologies from the traditional greek and egyptian myths to the lesser known Celtic and African myths.

I liked being able to use this encyclopedia of knowledge to find the details I was really looking for, rather than using a book specifically on my subject. I was able to find many parallels by myself just from reading the myths separately. The most striking similarities were the general obsession with the sky and how it was created and myths about the sun and moon.

Many of the myths defined a mother earth and father sky, or similar figures. We see this in Greek mythology with Gaia and Uranus as well as in North American tribal myth where they saw the earth as the Great Mother Spirit’s body and the sky as the Father arching over the Mother. Most of the cultures believed their main gods lived in the sky, and that tall features were holy because they stretched up closer to the gods. Mount Olympus, the “heavenly ladder” ir chinese mythology called the Tree of Jianmu, and the structures built in Egypt, India, Mesoamerica, and many other cultures are all examples of how humans tried to get closer to the gods. Many myths also described how the celestial bodies were created out of parts of the gods. For example, in Norse Mythology, Odin’s flesh became the earth, and in India people believe that Parajapati’s tears created the Earth. In African and Japanese myth, the features of the earth as well as the sun and moon were created out of sickness and the excrements of a dying god.

As for the sun and moon, they were usually linked either as lovers or as siblings. Many of you are probably familiar with the greek myth of the twins of Artemis and Apollo, who drive their chariots across the sky. They were also siblings in Japanese myth, called Amaterasu who was the sun, and Tsukiyomi, the moon. I found it very interesting how in these two myths, the genders of the two bodies were reversed. It shows a difference in culture and how they view the characteristics of ‘male’ and ‘female’. In South American myth, the moon was created to be the consort of the sun. The passage of the sun and moon across the sky was commonly seen as either a race or chase between the two. In other cases, it was a battle between night and day, which was necessary for harmony.

There was less about stars and constellations than I was expecting since the Greeks and romans were some of the only ones who really identified constellations and deliberately tied their myths to them. The majority of the zodiac and other common constellations were created by the greeks who said they were heros that the gods had placed in the stars. However some of those constellations actually have other creatures associated with them. The big dipper was a group of Macaws flying around the earth, and in Chinese myth, the scholar Kui Xing lived within the great bear constellation. The only other common reference to the stars was the significance of the Milky Way. In Japanese mythology, the Milky Way is a river of blood created by the murder of a child of the creator god. In Mesoamerica, the Milky Way was the body of their mother goddess.

I hope to look more into some of the psychology behind why humans worshiped the sky and its vastness. It is such a common trait among humans to turn up their faces in prayer or hope. Humans all over the earth have identified the sky as the home of their gods, and still to this day motion towards the sky when referencing heaven or god. Similarly, people identify hell as being down, under the earth. I want to learn more about this common affinity towards the sky before I write my paper.

The Art of a Beautiful Truth

After being introduced to A Picture of Dorian Gray, I can't seem to stop comparing it to everything. Of course, this book portrays the three main themes we are discussing in class: Beauty, Art, and Truth. These three elements string together perfectly, each having a piece of the other within them. Humans separate themselves from other species by their ability to create art, have a concept of beauty, and an ability to conceal or understand truths. All three of these elements require massive amounts of cognitive thought and emotion. Being able to understand and express your opinions and thoughts is a human-like trait. All of these elements- art, beauty, and truth- require a deeper understanding of one's mind.

Through art, we create beautiful things that reveal the truth about our feelings and thoughts. Art is visual, emotional, honest, and enlightening. Art has a way of engaging the mind to search deeper within itself. Truth does this, as well. Truth requires a person to search within themselves and discover their core thoughts and emotions. Truth, like art, can be eye-opening and incredibly emotional. Sometimes, viewing an honest work of art can be as triggering as discovering a secret about a person. Art has a way of revealing the truth to the viewer, even if that truth is a difficult one to understand.

When it comes to beauty, most say that there are two categories- materialistic and individual. Regardless of the advertisements on television, or the unrealistic expectations of physical beauty in our current time, beauty is a personal experience. Recognizing true beauty is an emotional process. What we view as beautiful often says something about the person that we truly are. Beauty is much like truth; as one person cannot be called truly beautiful if they are not themselves. Though everyone has their own idea of beauty, everyone also has their own idea of truth. Both can be subjective, as well as debated. The difference between truth and beauty is that truths can be proved and beauty cannot.

From an instinctual level, we create art because it is visually appealing to us. We cannot explain why we find particular arrangements of color to be breathtaking. Art is the way we express our emotions, and a piece of art can be beautiful, ugly, or sometimes frightening. When it comes down to it, we admire so many paintings, statues, and songs because they are beautiful to us. Beauty and art are very closely related. Beauty can be obvious or complex, as can art. There are visual and inner responses to beauty, such as the way a certain person causes you to react, or the way you visualize all of the things that make them beautiful. Art can also be visual and inner. The initial beauty as a piece may cause the viewer to take a few steps back, and then they begin to react in an emotional way. Art triggers different emotions for each individual- as does seeing a beautiful stranger on the sidewalk.

Art, Beauty and Truth, an Inner World

Art, beauty, and truth are all part of the inner world that we as humans share.  Beauty is defined in many ways, one of those ways is an experience where we perceive something that gives us pleasure or satisfaction.  Even though beauty is something we see with our eyes, it is an internal experience.  Truth is similar. Our inner worlds, beliefs and perceptions are affected by truth.  And art is the thing that expresses this deep and otherwise imperceptible world. 

Beauty and truth are always there, regardless of whether or not a person comprehends it.  A flower is beautiful because of properties that it has, and even if no one could see that beauty, it would still exist.  Truth is the same way, if something is true it will not become untrue even if no one believes it.  However, to understand beauty and truth, a person has to filter what their senses are showing them, through their own beliefs and ideas. When a person perceives beauty or truth it becomes a part of their inner world and will influence the way they understand beauty and comprehend truth from then on.  For example, a person who sees a person they care about will appreciate that person's beauty even more because they are seeing that person's physical appearance through the lens of their positive feelings toward them.  Then, the image of that person who is seen as attractive is placed into the inner world of the person seeing them, and they become a standard of beauty for that person.

Art is the way we as humans express beauty and truth as we experience them in our inner world.  Writing, music, painting and sculpture express what we find to be beautiful and true.  Since art is an expression of these crucial elements of our inner worlds, it is no wonder it moves us so much.  Art brings to our external lives the most abstract elements of our interior, beauty and truth.

Nature & Society

Art, beauty, and truth are all human creations. While we recognise that they all exist in nature, there was no need for any of those ideas before humans created them as labels. All nature can be considered beautiful, even the destructive or brutal side of it. Before humans came around and started defining what was beautiful and what was ugly, nature was still just as gorgeous (and maybe even more beautiful before our smoke marred her skies). We can call nature artistic and use it for creative inspiration, but it isn’t really in itself an art form. Art is, by its definition,  “created with imagination and skill” (Merriam Webster). So nature never really became ‘artistic’ until humans gave it that label. Finally, in nature there is no such thing as a lie or falsehood. Nature is, obviously, natural or true. So, before humans came along with our big brains creating names for all the things we saw, there was no need for the concepts of art, beauty, or truth. In nature, there were no opposites in that regard. Everything could be beautiful and true and nothing was really art.

As human society developed, the ideas of art, beauty, and truth became warped. More and more, beauty was used exclusively to describe humans, and therefore to subjectify them. Truth is a convenience that people say they try to abide by, but so often throw away when it hinders their goals. The art world has grown immensely and some art has taken very dark turns. It can be gory, violent, and alarming (which isn’t always a bad thing, but I’m sure that the renaissance artists would be appalled by some of the art created these days). As much as these societal views and norms have changed, I don’t think that human nature regarding these things has really changed all that much. For example, even though we all recognise and agree upon the beauty norms in America today, we all see the flaws. Pretty much any person can understand how fake our ideas of ideal beauty are and that they are not really obtainable by common people. In this way, I think that human beliefs and actions don’t correspond. We believe in truth and inner beauty and emotional art based on inner experience, but our actions don’t usually follow these beliefs. We still endorse beauty products, and celebrities who lie and cheat. I think part of the reason that it is so interesting for us to talk about this kind of thing in class is because it is so hard for us to fight the societal norms, even though  we know they’re wrong.