ART FUTURE

A Future Saved by Art

Art has tremendous power! It can inspire us or give us something to believe in. It ignites our passion, creativity, and ingenuity. Art can move us to create an amazing future.  A future in which we have traveled past our pit falls to peace, enlightenment, and wisdom.

For a moment imagine a future where art is so pivotal it provides the ethical, spiritual, and emotional cornerstones of society. A future in which the arts are so important that the most extreme measures are taken to cultivate them. What an inspired future this would be!

In this future I see art as an equal to our great pursuits of science and technology. Very much as it was during the European Renaissance. Similar to science, the arts are an exploration that expands our understanding of the universe. Rather than setting arts to the side in schools they will be elevated to be a key subject. Art will not be viewed as enrichment, but necessity.

I believe we are on the cusp of this incredible future. Furious energy is in the air…

We stand at a time when technology has made fine art accessible to everyone, and it has given all artists the opportunity for their work to be seen. Initiatives like Google Art Project make the finest museums around the world available anywhere. Users can virtually walk the halls, viewing works in exquisite detail via Google’s gigapixel photo capturing technology. Shedding a light on lesser known contemporary artists are online galleries such as The Freak Show. They bring artists’ work to a wide audience without the need of often difficult to obtain traditional support.

 

In contrast, there are still aspects of society that attempt to suppress art. We stand at a time when the power of one man’s art is so greatly feared by a nation they imprison him. Ai Weiwei has traveled passed being just an artist. He has become a force fighting for not only the liberation of the Chinese, but of all people. In addition, Weiwei uses the internet as his sword, speaking his unabashed mind to all through his blog and Twitter. He speaks his vision of freedom in his art, his words, and most of all his actions.

Art in the 21st century is ready to revolutionize itself. It is ready to move on from conceptualism, from pop, from abstraction to something more. A new renaissance is impending. The European Renaissance brought about the vision of humankind’s ability to grasp the nature of the universe, it shaped individual’s lives as well as the future of their world. We are once again ready to expand our vision beyond it’s present limit.

I see my role in this revolution as creator of the expression of the abstract, a new style of art exploring the infinite through a vibrant visual dialog. Rather than abstracting what is seen I strive to convey what is abstract. I ask the viewer to look past themselves, politics, and culture to the unlimited possibilities beyond. By expanding and moving away from what is known we find unity in our need to wonder. This is the essence of my painting Opening. This piece is simply about the act of moving away. Yet it explores something incomprehensible, infinite opening void of objectivity or representation. The paint spilling off the canvas challenges the viewer to set their own exploration beyond it’s bounds.

Art represents our ability to strive past the status quo and explore change. Change that can be radical and great. I hope for a future where the brightest minds of engineers, programers, scientists, etc. can look to art and find in it the power to transcend.

Yet art is in no way a magical fix for the ills of society. Though in our skeptical modern world it is something we can believe in. Art is on a wall, in a museum, in the street, on a screen…  It exists for the viewer, for them to take from it what they see. Go find art and take from it something more. Now go give that to others.