Letters to the Editor
Magritte's pipe
Published Letters: 129 Editor's Choice: 6
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Last bit of the letter
[Read the article: I'm afraid I'm doing the wrong art]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I thought that the last paragraph in the letter was the most important so I'll just write down some of my immediate reactions to it:
I don't know what I'd do art about, and I certainly don't know why it has taken on this role in my life that is so fraught (I can navigate more freely in the creative writing world, where I've been more accepted). And I also don't know why I am not motivated enough to actually do the work itself, in any medium. I see creative people doing commercially creative work: editors, graphic designers, etc. I feel that I could be one of them, but I also feel that I don't want to make my art commercial; I don't even know if I could. How should I proceed?
First of all, on what to do art about- get a sketchbook or some scrap paper and start sketching ideas, even if they seem stupid. They don't have to be profound or elaborate plans but just sketches of ideas that you have off the top of you mind. If you have trouble getting started choose a random subject matter or object or concept and make a related sketch. Let me tell you, the first few sketches are probably going to be bad. Don't get discouraged and keep on going, until you have exhausted the initial shallow ideas. Then, force yourself to make more sketches. Keep on doing this and your mind will adjust to think of more creative ideas, and eventually you will come up with something that you really like.
Secondly, don't worry about what the "community of artists" is like and whether or not you will be accepted. You already mentioned that you enjoyed art because you primarily associated it with freedom; why should it be any different now? Just because you create art doesn't mean you have to fit in to the image of an artist, if such an image even exists. Pursuing art for you seems to be wrapped up in an identity, which it needn't be. Visual art is just a medium- your identity is yours alone.
As for motivation to do art, if you come up with an idea that matters to you, something that you yourself admire, the motivation to do art will come.
With regards to commercial art- you are thinking to far ahead. If you aren't creating art that is meaningful to yourself then you won't be able to create art that is meaningful to the commercial interests of corporations because you won't feel creative, you won't have the desire to be creative commercially- you will be feeling guilty and uneasy. Be comfortable with art on a personal level and then you will be able to pursue projects on the side for financial reasons with ease.
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walter_map
[Read the article: Religion is poetry]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Religion requires little more than 'facile caricature' to discredit it.
So it requires little more than a caricature to discredit the traditions of people interpreting and discussing the connections they have with the world and the nature of the world? You view religion as a strictly dogmatic system in which all individuals accept the existence of a supernatural being. But what about this- if individuals have some deeply moving emotional experience and they link that to a certain religion, then practicing that religion is a way for them to ponder the nature of such experiences. Sort of like people pondering what love is and what it means to be ethical. Yet there is no way that all members of a certain community, sect or religion perceive God or whatever it is that they believe in identically. That is what I think Carse means when he says that religions and beliefs do not always come hand in hand. So the point is, religion is not just a group of institutions with a strict set of dogmatic rules and outlandish beliefs- it is a living body of people seeking an explanation of their sense of connection to others within a certain cultural tradition.
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walter_map
[Read the article: Religion is poetry]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, it is a bit pathetic of you. You sidestep the question of the difference between belief and religion. I agree with you that it is certainly easy to discredit many beliefs of some religious people- for example, the beliefs that what our reality is simply a dream dreamed up by a sleeping god, or that a god who loves us will condemn us to hell for all of eternity in our afterlife. But what about religion? Not all of those individuals who sit in church pews and say prayers have the same conception of God. For example, one individual may have a literal understanding of God as a sentient, all-knowing being who forgives your sins and makes miracles happen, while another may interpret the Bible in a symbolic or metaphorical way. So when Carse discusses how there was no consensus on exactly what Jesus was like, the importance in Christianity lay in how one's interpretation of Jesus related to what it meant for an individual to be human.
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Subodim
[Read the article: Tom the Dancing Bug]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Actually, devaluation of the dollar is mentioned as weak dollar- in between lobbyists and deficit spending, and just below the US Treasury. The corresponding arrow leads to "price increase of gas".