Tuesday, August 21, 2007

On Art and its Purpose

One of my college acquaintances just put up a new website of her artwork. Jordan's one of those dear, rare artists who managed to make it through four years of art education apparently without ever losing her silly bourgeois conviction that art is supposed to be beautiful. There are certainly many different levels on which any piece of art can be appreciated, and much great art does evoke a wide range of emotion, but I will never agree with the school of thought that considers art only that which "challenges" the viewer. Whatever happened to simply rejoicing in what beauty is to be found in this all-too-often ugly world of ours? Is it not the artist's craft to use his or her skills to find, translate, and share that beauty with others less naturally inclined to see it for ourselves? I praise God, then, that there are still artists like Jordan illuminating the world for the rest of us.

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