Musings on Art

The act of creating a work of art - any work of art - is a mysterious and sacred one. Artists and poets of antiquity invoked the help of the Muses, daughters of the Greek God Zeus, who are patrons of the arts and sciences, provider of inspiration and guidance to the beleaguered artist. It is not a false belief that some kind of divine force is at work whenever an artist, be it a woodcarver or a Hollywood filmaker, translates something that's in the realm of the imagination into the material world. Sometimes the artist himself is surprised at how such beautiful ideas come into being. Absorbed in the act of painting or writing, the artist at his most productive, is akin to be being in a trance - being in tune with higher forces beyond the mundane realm of everyday life.

I believe artistic expression is an act of divine worship. The artist is a channel for the creative impulses of nature to burst into time and space. Works of arts exists in the eternal realm, like Platonic Ideals, and the creative artist connects to this reservoir of treasures, catches a glimpse of the Infinite Beauty and conveys them through whatever medium that exists in the material world - words, colours, sound, marble or movement. To do art is to worship God. And a good artist is in essence a spiritual person.