Hello dear blog, how I've missed you. And, hello readers, I'm sorry for not posting anything in the last few months. Life has been truly chaotic to say the least.
Yet, excuses aside, there is a raging fire burning inside that must come out in the form of words for your eyes to be scorched by.
This fire is from anger, from sadness, from passion and from ambitions that have fallen by the wayside.
The death of the artist world.
After watching the movie BRIGHT STAR, and reliving the life of John Keats, it came to my attention, that we no longer care about art. Not poetry, not paintings, not sculpture, and definitely not acting.
When Transformers can sell billions of dollars, and Bright Star falls flat, you really have to think about our society, and how it perceives art in our age.
Bright Star is the story of John Keats, one of the most brilliant Romantic Poets of all time. He was poor, homeless at times, and fell in love with a well-to-do woman that returned that love for him, but she was scorned by society, by friends and family alike for loving a man, wholeheartedly and passionately, that could not better her life in any way. The movie is so well acted, the story they chose was so well written, and the dialogue is amazing. So, we have art in it's purest form, twofold in this film. The story of John Keats and his poetry, and the film itself. Neither of which, I assume anyone knew about until now.
Now, I understand we have the Daniel Day Lewis' of the acting world that still consider acting an art form and he makes his movies, and then retires to his life of cobbling shoes. That is a man that gets that he has a gift and wants to share it with the world, but wants to feel 'normal' and human when he's not creating a film. But, as a whole, we put more attention into what Lindsay Lohan is doing, rather than checking our local museum to see what art pieces are passing through there.
We have stopped reading books, and we've stopped appreciating the writers themselves. Unless we actively hear about some book being amazing (Harry Potter, The Secret, The Da Vinci Code, etc.) we will not peruse our bookstore looking for what's new and exciting, and then when you do find a friend that does do so, we look at them with amazement, like they're some kind of freak.
It used to be hard to make a living as an artist (still is), but at least the artist was respected. The actor on a stage, the writer that wrote the play, the clothing designer that created the clothes, the artist who painted the backdrop.
We don't care about any of that anymore. It saddens me, and pisses me off at the same time. Art used to be known as "Culturing yourself.". Creating a part of a culture that embraced the artistic value, and the people themselves that were born with a gift.
Now, an actor with a true talent moves to Hollywood (not to be famous, but to act), and gets shoved aside by a Reality Star that's willing to eat dog shit for 15 minutes of fame on a television show that took up a slot where a scripted show should have been.
No, we don't care. We don't care that a man can create music with a piano that touches the soul in a way only likened to a woman softly touching your face. Because it doesn't have Lil Wayne or T Pain in it.
We are a world of commercials. Our attention span is 15 seconds or less. We care more about Ed Hardy than we do Ed Harper.
What happened to the world that used to look up to Broadway as a Masterpiece of art, and saw it as a ritzy and glamorous showcase? What happened to music that was created with instruments, and a voice, and not with a computer? What happened to the writer that used to write books....and not have to write blogs.....What happened to the actor, that used to be able to at least find enough work to survive on, rather than being bombarded with one million people wanting fame and fortune?
What happened to us people? We are on a downward spiral that is destined for nothing good.
Pablo Picasso said: Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
I think the bigger issue is, how to we start caring again?
(i fear, that even this blog will be too long for most people to make it through the whole thing)
Let's take back our world. Let's give ourselves class and sophistication again. Let's support those that bring true value to our world, for each artist paints a landscape with his own talent, and it's up to us to find an outlet that can be appreciated by more than just ourselves.
The world would be a much better place, if we would cherish, and hold close, those things that truly have substance, and stop looking for the 'quick fix'.
Appreciatively yours,
Johnny
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