Faith Meets Life: For art's sake
Two of my brothers make art for a living, one in New York, and the other in Rotterdam, while many of my family members are “into art.” Meanwhile, the hallways of Fanshawe are graced, here and there, by the contributions of students in the visual arts. And, if you don't mind my saying so, I'm not bad on the guitar. All this has me thinking about art this week.
Art in the hallways can serve a number of purposes. One purpose is simply to give some colourful relief from the monotonous institutional look of this, well, err, institution.
Sometimes college hallways remind me of the room of a young patient I once visited in a psychiatric hospital. The drab blue paint and curtain-less windows seemed designed to plunge the patient into further depths of depression. The newer parts of Fanshawe are a nice change from the long, utilitarian halls of older parts of the building. Architecture too, as students of art history know, is a form of art.
Beyond offering a change from the prevailing visuals of the college, art can serve other purposes. Some art is a way for the artist to vent her frustrations or express positive feelings. Other objects of art are meant to teach. Michelangelo's “David,” for example, is a very beautiful object, but it also teaches something about the picture of humanity that Michelangelo and his contemporaries were developing: humanity as powerful, rational and self-assured - wonderful to behold.
If the definition of art can be stretched to include advertisement, we can see that art can serve commercial interests. We live in a time when advertisements are often more entertaining than the TV shows they interrupt. In fact, we tend to develop product loyalties today depending on the ability of the advertiser of the product to entertain us. The other day I saw a TV ad for a car, which focused on easy financing and low prices. I found myself thinking that that was probably the least effective TV ad for a car I've seen in a long time. Most car ads are high on entertainment and low on hard information.
Art also has the ability to provoke us into new ways of thinking. The psychedelic, drug- informed, music and “pop art” of the sixties had that as a primary purpose. Popular musicians and artists questioned the modern, bureaucracy-driven powers of their time.
I like to link art with an observation from Christianity. Christians claim that the main purpose of people is to glorify God. Artists too, can share in this calling. Art can inspire people to work for justice in their local communities or globally. It can help shake people from blindly following the status quo, as the film V for Vendetta does. It can call our attention to the wonder and richness of the world made by the Creator. It can alert us to the way God has been working among human beings. It can help us reflect on good and evil and encourage us to choose what is good.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
Art in the hallways can serve a number of purposes. One purpose is simply to give some colourful relief from the monotonous institutional look of this, well, err, institution.
Sometimes college hallways remind me of the room of a young patient I once visited in a psychiatric hospital. The drab blue paint and curtain-less windows seemed designed to plunge the patient into further depths of depression. The newer parts of Fanshawe are a nice change from the long, utilitarian halls of older parts of the building. Architecture too, as students of art history know, is a form of art.
Beyond offering a change from the prevailing visuals of the college, art can serve other purposes. Some art is a way for the artist to vent her frustrations or express positive feelings. Other objects of art are meant to teach. Michelangelo's “David,” for example, is a very beautiful object, but it also teaches something about the picture of humanity that Michelangelo and his contemporaries were developing: humanity as powerful, rational and self-assured - wonderful to behold.
If the definition of art can be stretched to include advertisement, we can see that art can serve commercial interests. We live in a time when advertisements are often more entertaining than the TV shows they interrupt. In fact, we tend to develop product loyalties today depending on the ability of the advertiser of the product to entertain us. The other day I saw a TV ad for a car, which focused on easy financing and low prices. I found myself thinking that that was probably the least effective TV ad for a car I've seen in a long time. Most car ads are high on entertainment and low on hard information.
Art also has the ability to provoke us into new ways of thinking. The psychedelic, drug- informed, music and “pop art” of the sixties had that as a primary purpose. Popular musicians and artists questioned the modern, bureaucracy-driven powers of their time.
I like to link art with an observation from Christianity. Christians claim that the main purpose of people is to glorify God. Artists too, can share in this calling. Art can inspire people to work for justice in their local communities or globally. It can help shake people from blindly following the status quo, as the film V for Vendetta does. It can call our attention to the wonder and richness of the world made by the Creator. It can alert us to the way God has been working among human beings. It can help us reflect on good and evil and encourage us to choose what is good.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
