I had the thought again. It's usually a variation on, "What makes you think you're good enough to be a full-time artist? And what purpose does art serve anyway?" Since I've been listening to this voice all my life, I'm going give the commenter a name. Henceforth he shall be called "Brutus." I'm gazing out the window on the train from Prague to Paris, thinking happy thoughts about art, when Brutus attacks. "Hah! You want to be an artist? What purpose does art serve anyway?" But this time is different. Instead of meekly replying, "I don't know..." I think there must be a better answer.
One of my art teachers in college used to ask the students to come up with one hundred solutions to a problem. Brutus constant deriding and badgering is a problem, and I want to be an artist.
I get in Brutus' proverbial face and say, "Oh yeah? Watch this!"
Could I come up with one hundred answers to the question "What is the purpose of art?"
I'd be happy if I got to 50. But then 50 came and went and I wondered if I might hit 75 before I ran out of answers, but no, I kept thinking of more reasons why art matters.
Even though I thought I might be repeating myself, I persisted until I hit 100 and then I kept going. (The following are presented to you un-edited and in the order in which they came to me.) Take that, Brutus. What's that, Brutus? Nothing to say?
"What is the Purpose of Art?"
1. To disturb the status quo
2. To continue the dialogue of art history
3. To connect people with that which is universal
4. To speculate on or to try to predict the future
5. To reflect its time
6. To shock people into action
7. To create an emotional response
8. As an emotional outlet for the artist
9. To aggrandize the patron
10. To make money
11. To invent new visual symbols or vocabulary
12. To surprise
13. To delight
14. To inform
15. To invent new things
16. To inspire
17. Commonality of feeling or experience
18. You're not alone
19. As propaganda
20. As practice
21. Connection
22. Universality
23. To warn
24. Catharsis
25. Healing
26. Comfort
27. Joy
28. "Inside knowledge"
29. "Cool kids"
30. Inside jokes
31. To say "I was here"
32. To leave a mark
33. To worship
34. To manifest
35. To criticize
36. To poke fun at
37. To idealize
38. To normalize
39. To preserve
40. To leave a legacy
41. To create context
42. To explain
43. To mystify
44. To unsettle
45. To elevate
46. To simplify
47. To deconstruct
48. To rearrange
49. To magnify
50. To get a reaction
51. To get attention
52. To find acceptance
53. To find love
54. To scratch an itch
55. To answer a calling
56. Show respect
57. To show reverence
58. To show humility
59. To feed the ego
60. To understand
61. To express love
62. To incite desire
63. To incite envy
64. To show off
65. To compete
66. Two excel
67. To master oneself
68. To meditate
69. To get in the zone
70. To learn to quiet the mind
71. To have fun
72. To adapt
73. To cope
74. To grieve
75. To solve problems
76. To fail and try again
77. To test oneself
78. To test one's audience
79. To ask a question
80. To reach into the future
81. To reach into the past
82. To see more acutely
83. To listen more keenly
84. To learn to love yourself
85. To respect yourself
86. To honor yourself
89. To make people see familiar things in new ways
90. To create a dialogue with the audience
91. To explore what it means to be human
92. To give thanks
93. To show devotion
94. To be like God
95. To become more sensitive
96. To become a divining rod
97. To be decorative
98. To pare down to the essential
99. To prove them all wrong
100. To push back death
101. To become powerful
102. To create beauty
103. To create something new in the world that didn't exist before
104. To transport
105. To calm
106. To excite
107. To soothe
108. To agitate
109. To be a catalyst
110. To commiserate
111. To spark outrage
112. To heighten the viewer's senses
113. To ease suffering
114. To make people happy
115. To increase empathy
116. To strengthen oneself
117. To feel pleasure
118. To feel sensual
119. To feel accepted
120. To connect with the divine
121. To ask "what if?"
122. To commemorate
As you can see, I ended up with 122 reasons art is important. You can probably think of more.
And Brutus has not criticized me for my new career choice even once since I made this list.
😜
I conceive of this an ongoing dialog, an interactive art project. Please add your reasons. That'll keep Brutus quiet.