THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST

THE TIME OF THE IRRESPONSIBLE ARTIST IS OVERALBERT CAMUS

In the beginning was the word-the sound-the frequency-the pulse
The melody-the harmony-the cosmos-the earth-life-flora-faunachaos-
The artist
The artist therefore must in the kabbalistic sense
Harness these energies to help bring about tikkun;order,repair,healingin
Islam it is called umma
John coltrane calls this a love supreme
Sound-spirit-science… heart-soul-mind
The artist must excavate deep truths to help expand human
Consciousness and awareness
The artist must learn to go beyond the low ways of man and break
Out of what the bhagavad gita calls the ego-cage
Humanity is at a cross roads; environmental degradation
War-violence against women-against children
Against all those jesus called “the least”
Entertainment by and large stupefies-distracts
Keeps people in the cave-feeds the beast of consumerism
Materialism & illusion
According to such deep thinkers & spiritual seekers
As aldous huxley and dh lawrence
Art without a moral purpose is empty,frivolous
Those in pursuit of fame & fortune miss the healing and divine
Properties of art
And as writer chris hedges notes one cannot serve truth and
Justice and power & prestige
In fact in the gospels jesus says “you cannot serve god and
Mammon-the tension and contradictions are too great and
Irreconcilable
In other words true art is of the spirit and entertainment is of the
Flesh -spirit is eternal-flesh is temporal
The artist must be bold & brave
The artist must understand the power of love
And the truth of the interrelated structure of reality
As well as the oneness of all life
To the ancient chinese, the eyes constituted
A yang type type of sense organ: male,aggressive,dominating,
Surface oriented.
The ears,on the other hand, are a yin sense: female,nurturing,
Intuitive,spiritual,depth oriented,perceiving the whole as one.
The new human will be a listening human-a holistic human
An inclusive human
Our capacity for transcendence is located in our sense of hearing
The range of what we can hear is tenfold more than the range in
Which we can see
Everywhere in nature and in music the higher voices ie. The feminine
Have a leading function.We need to honor this again
The male listening to the female.
For as albert camus wrote artistic creation is a demand for unity.
And as howard zinn believed “it is the job of the artist to transcend and
Think outside the boundaries of permissible thought and dare to say
Things no one else will say.”
And finally james baldwin,”ultimately,the artist and the revolutionary
Function must pay whatever dues must be payed because they are
Possessed by a vision,and they do not so much follow this vision as find
Themselves driven by it,otherwise,they could never endure,much less
Embrace,the lives they are compelled to lead.