ART AND THE ARTISTE
Art is expression and the artiste is one gifted with
the ability to express but expression is not confined
to the ability of the artiste. It is the need of man
to express and be understood that has brought about
communication protocol like gestures and languages. An
artists ability to express is none like any ordinary
mans, thus setting him apart, because he has the
ability to see things that not everyone can see
&appreciate until they have been revealed.(there are
people who have good taste and people who give them an
opportunity to enjoy that taste.).It's like there are
things that "metaphorically" float in the air above
our head and between us. It's an artist's ability to
see these "metaphorical" things and bring them to the
notice of the rest of the world. Though the people of
the world need artistes to find the perfect companion
when a fellow human being wont do, to take them away
from this crazy world we live in for a while and to
give them hope against faultless reasoning when it is
uncalled for, they bind him down by forcing him to
give them things that they want to hear in they want
to hear them in an indirect manner by determining his
success in the support they lend to him in return for
that pleasure.The constant complaint of an artiste, if
he chooses to complain, is that when he offers his
audience something to think about, they tackle on the
armour of analysis and analyze it until it dies away
or dies down until it is kept alive by a few who
believe in it. If he offers them something hollow,
rebellious or just what they want to hear, they take
it in because they like things the way they know,
rather blame someone else or they'd just rather leave
life's questions unanswered. A clever artiste knows
what people want and gives them exactly what they
want. A true honest artiste digs out the truth and
offers it up.He is a true believer in the arts. He is
like in between the audience and the art. The audience
needs to understand that they are ill- knowledged when
it comes to things that he can give them that are
worthy taking in. If they could do what he can, he
wouldn't be needed to do them but since they can't, he
is there. They only have the power and the ability to
stop him in his tracks and deny his discoveries from
further penetrating into their lives and affecting
them.
In touching hearts, souls and lives lies an artiste's
success. That is where his audience can cut him
off.They can choose to let their hearts, souls and
lives be touched by things they choose to let it be
touched by. As an amateur artiste (as I'd like to call
myself), it is this that weighs heavy on my head. It
needs to be understood that an art wouldn't be called
an art if you could make it what you want. A true
artiste is a visionary who is gifted with many a
vision which he understands better than anybody else
that he can speak of, sing about, write about or
describe with conviction in a manner that nobody else
can.Every art has got its folk form which almost
anyone can indulge in as well as another but its true
form is one which one needs to be gifted enough to be
a part of.Being the key to its survival and it being
almost our everyday need, we need to allow the free
flow of expression and support the arts. We can never
tell what it may bring us because they are so many
things that we don't see. Its best we leave that up to
artistes, because only they can bring them to our
notice, without allowing them to work only within a
certain framework. There's a huge world out there.
Most of us live in our own world far from it.That's
what motivates me as a songwriter. There's never a
song not to write. The world is never big enough,
beautiful enough or versatile enough. So many things
to understand and define before you get to what's absolute.