What is it about Art?

While I was browsing through myspace I noticed a bulletin posted by a photographer named Josh McKague. His bulletin posed the question:

What makes art so pleasing? Why are we so intrigued by it? What does it have to say about human beings? Would we love art even if we were never influenced by any outside person or source i.e. if we were born in the jungle and never talked to anyone would we still love art and want to create it?”

I dont usually pay much attention to posts on myspace but I felt inclined to respond to his question. I think that it is a classic question, brought up time and time again as artists try to figure out where their particular style fits in with the rest of the world. Here are my thoughts on Josh’s questions:

What makes art so pleasing and why are we so intrigued by it? I feel that those two questions can be summed up with one answer: Nature. A closer look at your natural surroundings reveals that nature is built on ratios. Those ratios are naturally pleasing to humans and I believe that we are hardwired to find those natural ratios pleasing. Most people are inclined to enjoy something that is pleasurable; so as an artist, the creative part of our brain sets out to recreate those ratios either consciously or unconsciously. I am personally intrigued by this perfection in nature. In my art I am constantly trying to replicate this perfection or at the least capture what nature has managed to perfect.

I find some fault in the second part of Josh’s question: “if we were born in a jungle…no outside influences…would we still love art”. I am not sure how to rephrase the question because just about anything around you would be an influence. But for now let us just run with the original question. If you take what I said about nature’s perfection inspiring art and causing us to be intrigued; then being in a jungle isolated from any other people would be the best place to be inspired in a way that would instill a love, or at least an appreciation, of nature and eventually the art inspired by nature. Eventually we as humans would most likely be inclined to duplicate what we feel is pleasing, thus creating “art”.



ISOfifty Website

Check out this new website created by my friend Camilo Arevalo. Here are a few words from Camilo on what ISOfifty is all about……

ISOfifty began as an idea for a forum of photographers of similar and different backgrounds that can come together to express the world in a new light. Camilo Arevalo originally founded ISOfifty in Orlando Florida. Shortly thereafter Paul B. Gardner joined they fray, and today the organization contains 6 members and is situated nationwide in Los Angeles, Daytona, Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Boston. Despite its growth and rapid expansion the organization continues to maintain its set of objectives. We believe in uniting photographers and connecting them to businesses, organizations, and other photographers. We also enjoy helping each other by sharing techniques through classes, experiences through safaris, and then always trying to have a good time. Along with these values we also share in a vision of creating the highest quality images imaginable for ourselves and of course our clients. Our list of clients includes, Wind Surfing Magazine, Astronomy.com, Rally Manufacturing, Digital Ally, Miss Brasil USA, and others.”

-Camilo Arevalo (ISOfifty Founder)