Ani Rose...
...of www.livingstonesunlimited.com....
...wrote in response to Matt’s recent post about the subjectivity of giving art a monetary value.
“Art isn’t about the dollar,” Ani wrote. “There are so many people not expressing themselves artistically because of money.... How do we balance that? I don't know. I know I have to do it—and that is the voice I listen to.”
Matt responds:
Ani, I agree with everything you say!
When we are poor, we are poorer possibly in a material way, but we are rich in spirit, and that’s what really counts.
How we preceive it is between our eyes. Some of the most miserable people have the most money. On the other hand, some of the poorest are absolutely happy and delighted in their lives.
There’s the old saying: “When everybody is agitated and running around screaming like mad—and you’re perfectly calm... maybe you don’t really understand the situation..."
But maybe we do understand the situation; we just don’t give a damn about it; we accept it.
How we accept what we do reminds me of the notion that it’s fine to be rich and poor, but it’s more comfortable to be rich. That’s probably true in a materialistic society, so you can make a choice between gruel and filet mignon and pretend you like one better than the other...
All of these things really are part of the conversation and culture that goes with the territory of being an artistic phenomenon dedicated to good or evil or whatever. When you’re in a materialistic society, no doubt the artist is looked on as being sort of strange.
On the other hand, being in a fully spiritual society, an artist is not painting the spirit all the time... Maybe she’s painting naked people or people getting drunk or having fun, and maybe that is looked on with disdain...
I’ll never forget watching a program where Sister Wendy Beckett was being interviewed, and she was in her full nun’s habit, and the really great interviewer said to her: “Sister, you come from a convent that abides by a strict sense of morality within the sisterhood, and yet you stand in front of a canvas and talk about naked people flitting around, just as you would a vase of flowers. How do you do that?”
Sister Wendy said something along the lines of: “Well, my dear, I know that God made the vase of flowers to delight us and bring color to the earth, and I don’t think God would make man and woman and give them a gracious toy, but tell them not to play with it. It just depends on God and what they’re doing.”
That’s one of the greatest answers I’ve ever heard.
So what is comes down to is that everything is within the eye of the beholder.
Thank you for your comments, Ani. We always enjoy your observations on the Blog!
Matt