Art is a form of communication that evokes a reaction beyond simply reading or watching someone recite the news on television. The vibrant colors and bold lines of a piece can illicit emotions faster and more clearly, similar to the way a good poet must show feeling rather than just tell it.
Art has this organic quality of reflecting the world. An individual produces it just as if it was grown in a garden in the back yard, creating an honesty that cannot be celebrated in other methods of spreading a message. The viewer can immediately seek out the personal views or cultural context of the artist to understand aspects of the piece which are not clear upon sight only.
Art is the personal thermometer for the temperature of current situational climates with an agenda: to send a message with no guise of neutrality involved, providing a voice for many people whose histories are overlooked. Oftentimes, it becomes an alternative but drastically important history.
Recently I had forgotten why art was important, but lying sleeplessly at night a few weeks ago the reason hit me out of nowhere.
Scouring the BBC News page today I found an article about cartoons with an agenda to change the media discourse on the issue of drug war violence in Mexico.
Check out the following link to view a slideshow of the cartoons of the alternative histories:
http://www.theworld.org/2011/09/cartoons-no-mas-sangre-mexico/
