Why Art Is Important

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/

7 minutes and 16 seconds

Gettin' painterly! Look at that close-up!

I've been meaning to do this since the music video came out. Kanye West's Runaway has incredibly beautiful imagery in it. The shots are visually striking and resonated in my memory for several months. The use of color is fantastic, watch it and prove me wrong! ...He also makes two sleepy hollow references in the album. I have no idea why, but I dig it.

"Icabod Crane with that mothafuckin' top off"

and

"So much head, I woke up in sleepy hollow."

Anne Frankenstein

If a scientist were able to actually make a dead body animate, I think Anne Frank truly deserves it more than most.

Ain't Necessarily So

If I were given a choice to have any voice imaginable, I would take dear Ella Fitzgerald's. Her strong crooning voice always provides a soothing escape comparable to floating down a river on an inner tube on a breezy summer day. Listening to her bluesy improvisations and crystal clear alongside Louis Armstrong's bizarre guttural calls. It fascinates me to think that such a knock out voice belonged to a woman who was notoriously shy. I feel that. I've noticed that I get so self aware when performing, even when telling a joke it causes me to slow my speech and say each word with careful deliberate pace. There's something about knowing the answer to a joke while telling it, the excitement of having the knowledge makes me want to explode and circumvent to the punch line entirely.



They tell all you chillun
The devil's a villain
But ain't necessarily so.

To get into Heaven
Don't snap fo' a second
Live clean! Don't have no fault!

Oh, I takes that gospel
Whenever it's possible
- But with a grain of salt!