hy
create? The simple answer is why not. If one feels the need or desire,
one creates. But I think it goes much deeper than
that. To uncover the reason or need, one must investigate back to the
beginning. When doing this, it's really only a best guess based on lots
of logical speculation and a few good clues. By clues I mean archaeological
finds. Take animals drawn on cave walls by ancient man. Perhaps the first
art for art's sake. There are theories as to the purpose but I think it's
simply a need. I know I feel powerful and complete after I've just finished
a painting or a sculpture or a piece of music. I've expressed myself.
I've said "Here, this is ME. THIS is how I FEEL about THAT."
It gives me some greater sense of purpose. It lets others know that I
was here on planet earth. I didn't just exist, I DID SOMETHING. I think
this is a basic need going back to the hunter gatherer days.
I mean, if all we did was plant crops, eat, and raise children to
do the same, life would be boring. We'd be essentially animals. Through
art-through creating, we shape our environment. To create is first to
envision, to dream to imagine things as they could be. To fashion the
world around us to suit our tastes. In it's pure form, it allows us
to be individuals as opposed to simply being another human. It is the
platform on which we as a race advance.
Another one of the main purposes for creating is basically an historic
one. Art chronicles the best in mankind for future generations to appreciate,
be inspired by and learn from. I think it is important as an artist
to be aware of this. Artists are if nothing else historians. They provide
the means by which we transport ourselves back to their time-to their
mode of thought-to their reality. For example: we've all seen pictures
and old scratchy film clips of the Roaring '20's. Women with their heads
covered in these funny-looking skull cap-type hats and long straight
dresses with beads and tassles moving as they danced. Suppose they just
stood there with that silly outfit on. We'd be left to wonder why. But
when we see them going nuts having fun dancing to the Charleston, and
we hear that wonderfully jovial, happy, not-a-care-in-the-world, Stutz
Bearcat, drums crashing, banjo pluncking music, when we take the time
to appreciate the architecture of the day, we get a far better "feel"
for what it must have been like to have lived in that era and this enriches
our lives.
Let's go further back. Think of the 17th century when Baroque music
was in it's heyday. When there were no showers and people bathed a few
times a year; when both men's and women's clothing was several layers
thick and without a doubt not nearly as comfortable as today's; when
people used to hold a lemon wedge on a fork in front of their mouths
when speaking to someone at close range because they hadn't yet invented
mouthwash or perfected the concept of brushing one's teeth; etc. With
all that in mind we can perhaps guess at what it was like to be alive
then, BUT upon hearing the music and looking at the paintings of the
day, we can almost place ourselves there. This is done largely by holding
it up against what is popular today and drawing a comparison.
Let's go WAY BACK. Back to the hunter gatherer era. Why did they create?
Largely for practical reasons. A spearhead to kill a woolly mammoth
at first. A knife to cut the carcass. Then there's Og painting pictures
of the woolly mammoth on the cave wall. Og, what are you doing that
for? Why don't you make yourself useful and gather some more firewood.
Og the artist gets no respect. But if it wasn't for Og's drawings, we
may know far less about the way they lived so long ago. The old saying:
you've got to know where you've been, to know where you're going, holds
especially true in the act of creating.
All of this explains why the creations are of importance to the people
who will absorb them years later, but it still does not pin down exactly
why man creates. Ultimately because it feels good. One has the desire
to create and fulfills that desire. Simple. Like a scratched itch. This
point could be picked apart without end. The time wasted doing so would
be better spent creating something!
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