I read an interesting essay this week about the effect of art on the human condition. The argument was that, from our very earliest beginnings, our precursor ancestors practiced and were affected by art. You can reference the cave paintings, of course, some of which are now believed to have been done by Neandertal man (or woman?), decorations identified as being on the bodies of very early protohumans buried with ceremony, decorated bone and stone found in the caves inhabited by the earliest of humans. Obviously, we have continued to do all three of those things, as well as make music and dance. The article posits that art has a measurable influence on our hormone flow and thus on our physical and mental well-being. ‘Art therapy’ is a universally employed remedy for many distressing illnesses. We are soothed or stirred by a song or instrumental music. (Bagpipes, anyone? A trumpet call? A lullaby?)
Those musical influences are obvious, for sure. I had to think more about what was put forward for the effect of visual art. The argument is that the various forms of it influence us to see things and think of things differently. Photography is easy. We can be moved by a strong image (think of the photo of the little boy drowned and cast up on shore) . Interpretive art is more obscure. But, once you have seen even a reproduction of a Group of Seven Canadian landscape, can you ever think of the Shield Country the same way? Thompson’s The Jack Pine, just as an example, has generated not only learned investigation but also driving and rail tours. We endeavour to describe our world through visual art and, by doing so, influence and even change how we think of it and use it. Or, so goes the persuasive argument I read.
It is an interesting concept to play with. I was responsible for looking after a childless aunt. For her stipulated appearance in her open coffin, I arranged that she would be dressed in her favourite red suit and that her makeup was suitably bold. And, beyond decorating our bodies both in life and after death, if we have the time and money (and sometimes even when we don’t), we decorate, colour and curate where we live so that it looks and feels like a refuge or nesting place. I have watched family members struggle over decorating decisions and plead guilty to a few obsessions myself. And we are not alone. Have you noticed that Christmas decoration on many houses reaches far, far beyond a simple festive wreath? As for decorating what we use, anything can be a candidate. It is possible to see automobiles with antlers attached in December, and I would not be surprised to see them wearing bunny ears at Easter. Personal decoration? I have pierced ears, as do my daughters, in multiples. There is also, to my bemusement, the current rage to have a tattoo or two. Cro Magnon man would have approved.
Do we do these things because we are cognate, or are we cognate because we do them? It is certainly an amusing and fertile topic. Do you find yourself soothed and enriched by some form of art? And, if you do, which one? (AC, besides your amazing photography, of course.) I do not know enough about music to discuss it usefully, but I have loved and worked in the visual arts since I was a child. I am amused to find that the practice has been so meritorious.
