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Creativity
Art and Meaning
how engaged creativity can serve as a prime meaning opportunity
Posted January 18, 2012
In addition to psychology (and noimetic psychology) my interests include creativity, meaning, and activism. I've written at length on subjects like "engaged creativity" and when I train creativity coaches we spend a lot of time on the subject of "meaningful creative work."
I thought that I would do an intermittent series in Rethinking Psychology on "art and meaning," since that's a psychologically rich subject of interest to many of my readers. I thought that I would also invite you to share your thoughts on the subject. Here, today, are the thoughts of the photographer Guy Tal (info@guytal.com). I look forward to your comments and your contributions!
Guy (http://guytal.com/gtp/index.jsp) explained:
A concerned photographer opined that my moral standards are too high, my approach to art incompatible with contemporary definition, and my writing politically incorrect.
What prompted it was my claim that the majority of what is presented as (fine) art photography is meaningless, formulaic, and safely ignorable. In opposition, the sender stated that photography "gets people into nature," and the rest is unimportant. Art, he said, is for those who can afford it and should not be a consideration for "regular people."
Many artists before me contemplated their role and agency in society. Indeed, I believe that anyone worthy of the title ponders such thoughts with some regularity. Regrettably, few dare to express them openly. To eliminate from one's work and rhetoric anything that might offend also eliminates anything that might matter.
In the most ignorant of perceptions, art is about the mere production of beautiful things. Beauty is the soul and the bane of art. It lures those seeking distraction from the mundane, but if the work fails to convey meaning beyond mere aesthetics, it is little more than entertainment and, ultimately, of no real significance.
Beautiful things may be the products of artists, but they are not what being an artist is about. Being an artist is about living passionately and deliberately, placing curiosity, awe, honesty and creativity above social conventions and material spoils. It is not about randomly finding beauty; it is about discovering it within; creating it anew; interpreting, elevating, sharing and celebrating it in defiance of all that is corrupt, cynical, greedy, bigoted and shortsighted in the world. Works of art, however beautiful, are but the proverbial means that should never be confused with the artist's goals, nor separated from them.
And so we come to the photography of natural things - a rewarding hobby to many, but one fraught with cognitive dissonance. When those who practice it proclaim to seek a connection with the natural, yet limit their involvement in it to short-lived moments of beauty, beautiful images may be made; a connection is not. And when photographic images are not founded in personal conviction, original concept, meaningful interpretation, and ulterior purpose, beautiful they may be, art they are not.
We are fortunate to live in a world where adventure is still possible, where mystery still exists, where undiscovered beauty still awaits, where great rewards can still be attained for small risk, where the cacophony of our celebrated technology had not yet banished all silence, where livelihood can still be made by personal enterprise and not in servitude, where fellow humans still find value in art, and their generosity still makes an artist's life possible. Still, with each generation, more are inclined to believe that a meaningful life can be had within the bubble of manufactured reality and in disconnect with the things that make life itself possible.
My work is not meant to offer benign glimpses into things that happen to be beautiful. I wish for it to illustrate the wager we placed on our ability to reinvent reality; and not just in the material sense, but also in all the experiences that may never again be possible by artificial means. Generic pretty pictures will not do. Only the deliberate explorations, revelations, and stories we tell through original work stand a chance of piercing the walls of socialized indifference built over millennia of decadence and unsustainable practices.
I want others to have what I have, to know what I know, and to feel what I feel. I want to call to task those who proclaim themselves artists yet limit their work to the purposeless pursuit of beautiful trophies. I want photography to be worthy of a rightful place as an expressive and important form of visual art, as valid and respectable as any other. If that makes me politically incorrect, so be it.
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Eric Maisel, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist, bestselling author of 40 books, and widely regarded as America's foremost creativity coach. His latest book is Rethinking Depression: How to Shed Mental Health Labels and Create Personal Meaning (New World Library, February, 2012) and is available here. Dr. Maisel is the founder of noimetic psychology, the new psychology of meaning. Please visit Dr. Maisel at http://www.ericmaisel.com or contact him at ericmaisel@hotmail.com. You can learn more about noimetic psychology at http://www.infinitemeaningclass.com and more about Rethinking Depression at http://www.rethinkingdepression.com. If you're a creative or performing artist, you may also be interested in http://www.yourbestlifeinthearts.com
