The Measure of Art
The artist is the only realist. He understands the meaning and importance of pain and seeks it nevertheless. The artist understands the duality of mind and packages reality with all its vicissitudes in sensory drivers as images, words and sound - with the hope of nullifying our inertia. The artist hopes to wake us up, he hopes that we recognize reality and accept it. All art as all life is thus driven by hope, by expectation. To assume that art expects only appraisal is to restrict its potential. Art solely expects a reaction. This reaction can take any form. It can stimulate, disparage, enunciate or simply acknowledge reality as presented by the artist. How then do we define a successful artist? A successful artist can only be assessed by the "variety of reactions" his art conjures. More diverse the reactions more successful the artist is. True art is the skill of packaging diversity in a single piece - as a poem, a painting, a story or a symphony. If a painting or