beauty is not a need but an ecstasy. It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth, But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.
-Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet.
Art expresses emotion. Or art expresses the artist's emotion. Or art expresses our emotion. Or we express emotion about art. Or all four. Yes, all four.
Art expresses emotion. The art does not, in and of itself. The art just lies there, paint on canvas, paint on wood, ink on paper, stone on stone, brick on brick. The value of art is not in its sum. Added together no amount of words will equal anything remotely resembling art. The sum of the parts is nothing more than a million monkeys at a million typewriters turning out the work of Shakespeare. If you couple enough words, enough paint, enough bricks and mortar together you are bound to eventually get something that looks like art. But it will not be art. The value of art is not the sum of the parts.
The value of art is the whole.
Art, like God, is not three equals one. Art, like God, is three in one. But art can be much more than three. Art can be anything and everything, or just as easily, nothing. It is the stone at the side of the road that flashes so brightly when you drive by that you stop, 100 yards further on since you were going so fast, put the car in park, get out and walk back. You pick up the stone, turn it in your hand. You thought you would feel foolish taking the time to stop, after all it is just a stone, but you don't. Why?.
After all it is just a stone. The stone, in itself is nothing. The stone, plus the flash, plus its effect on you, plus your stopping, your getting out, plus your turning the stone in you hand is not art. Art is the stone on the side of the road that flashed and got you out of the car to turn it in your hand.
Art is the object and the emotion it elicits. Art is the whole kit and caboodle. The whole ball of wax. The whole ballgame.
