Argument of the day: for the "deeper meaning" of a piece of visual art to matter, it needs to fulfill at least one of two criteria:
(a)
It gives the artist an idea, or to inspire the artist into making the work. After all, if there is no idea, there is no art, and I (among others) would be disappointed with humanity if it no longer produced art.
(b)
It allows the artist to make the work more aesthetically pleasing or more interesting to the eye. Art is useless if it's not either aesthetically pleasing or interesting.
I use the word "necessary" deliberately, because of course the deeper meanings in art can be fascinating. However, the viewer should be able (ideally) to appreciate the art without understanding them. (E.g. I appreciated impressionist painting long before I understood that impressionism has to do with trying to capture the play of light on objects.)
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| Two Sisters, Pierre-Auguste Renoir. An Impressionist public domain image courtesy of Wikimedia. |
On the other hand, I know an individual who comes up with an elaborate backstory and/or meaning to any work of art ze comes across. (Being in a literature class with hir was both entertaining and infuriating.) And that's all well and good, since it helps hir appreciate art.
Those are two extremes on the topic--less vs. more meaning--and both apply to spirituality in life as well. (Life imitates art & art imitates life, and whatnot.) On one hand, there are individuals whose religion or spirituality--analogous to "deeper meaning"--is what gives purpose to their life. On the other hand, there are the individuals whose mundane, normal everyday activities--analogous to the physical nature of the work of art--give purpose.
It's kind of interesting that I am on one end of the spectrum when it comes to art but historically am on the other end of the spectrum when it comes to life. I love the idea of art for art's sake, maybe of appreciating art for the technical skill and visually pleasing result rather than for the idea the piece invokes, maybe of loving the way the colors meld together over the way the piece represents the joy of the human experience (or something). When it comes to life, though--well, I'm in the middle of a spiritual kind of transition. I grew up Christian (LCMS, if anyone's curious) but over the last few years became dissuaded with the teachings and only recently realized that I mostly agree only with what Christianity shares with other religions. So now I'm exploring (which I will surely go into in the future). But the point is that I'd always felt life's purpose coming from my religion, and lately it's coming from the spirituality I'm exploring.
I think that it's not really important where someone's life purpose comes from, so long as they're satisfied with it and it works for them. I feel like with the unfamiliar-to-me things I've been looking into, that I'm just constructing purpose for my life. But if it helps me be a better person and be happier, constructed meaning is just fine.
I wonder where other people fit on those spectrums. We could make a chart:
The dot is me at the moment. Where do you fall?
