Do you remember? When was the last time you felt transported by a work of art? It could have been a piece of music, or a film, a sculpture or a pair of boots. That is the feeling that an artist wants to create in you, in everyone. It is a defining part of being human, it is the impetus to connect with fellow human beings.Joseph Conrad, who wrote novels such as ‘Heart of Darkness’,and ‘Secret Agent’ wrote the following;
“..the artist appeals to that part of our being which is not dependent on wisdom; …He speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty, and pain; to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation — and to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts, to the solidarity in dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in aspirations, in illusions, in hope, in fear, which binds men to each other, which binds together all humanity — the dead to the living and the living to the unborn.”
:–My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel — it is, before all, to make you see. That — and
no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm — all you demand — and,
perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.
And that is why I love it when I see or hear a piece of work which makes me remember to ask the questions.
Art is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.
from Thomas Merton No man is an Island
Einstein was unequivocal about the power of being moved by art or science, by the mystery in either, and proposed that
“he who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good
as dead: his eyes are closed”
moving in time 