I was flicking through Facebook the other day… [as you do when you're waiting for watercolour washes to dry]… and found a challenge by ABC National to describe in 150 words or less why art matters in the 21st Century.
It took me a minute or two to realise that… yes… we are in fact in the 21st century… before also realising that someone seriously needs to let 20th Century Fox know about this… and soon! [grin]
Anyhow… back to the 150 words. Well… I thought about it some more and wondered what on earth a person could possibly say about art in the 21st Century. I mean… hasn’t everything that could have been said been already said?
10,000,000 times over perhaps?
And that’s pretty much all it took for the words to cue up and come tumbling out.
And in a spooky twist… when I counted them up and found I had exactly the required 150 without editing a single word… clicking “send” then seemed like the only reasonable thing left to do.
So was it meant to be?
Probably.
[Hopefully]
Because I wouldn’t mind winning the prize of two nights accommodation in the city and tickets to the opening of 21stCentury – Art in the First Decade at the Queensland Art Gallery [and I don't mind forfeiting the air tickets because I'm already here on the ground - grin]
Oops… almost forgot… here’s the 150 words.
Why does art matter in the 21st Century?
“Art is the distillation of an idea toward an infinite point; the condensation of transient thought into material substance. There, on the canvas, the idea [the thought] comes alive. The brush dances the dance of two hundred thousand years of mark making by humans in their endeavour to make sense of this thing called life. Life meaning is at the very essence of the human search for understanding. Our plight, our endurance, our ability to survive and surpass the expectation of an ordinary existence by the making of art will always be at the core of the search for truth about ourselves and the part that each of us might play in the telling of our own story here on planet earth. The artist sees from a different perspective what others see quite plain. This will not change in the 21st Century” – © Jean Burman 2010
The odd thing is… I completely believe this… and couldn’t have said it better myself!
Hang on… I DID say it myself (((chuckles)))
Whether anyone takes the time to read it is another matter.
But who cares?
I’m just glad the words are out there.
And I got to think about art [and what it means to me] and write it down in 150 words (((chuckles)))
Don’t you just love the questions that make you answer why?
Your turn now.
Why does art matter [to you] in the 21st Century?
Just for fun you have SIX words!
Fire away…
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With apologies to JSSargent 
Confuscius say: Try as you might to get photo straight -
