Liberrimo: Experience and Expression; The Natural Evolution of Art and the Artist
“Is there then any such happiness as for a man’s mind to be raised above confusion of things, where he may have a respect of the order of nature…?”(1)
Nirvana (oil on canvas). 18 H x 24 W
I believe it the obligation of every individual to experience Art, to seek the experience of Art’s interaction with the soul. As is with all true pursuits, “artistic” or otherwise, one naturally enters the realm of the soul. One may define the soul as the subconscious: the dimension of the individual that experiences existence outside of conscious effort to experience. As such, by my definition, Art is the soul’s expression of absolute freedom. Why? Well, from my understanding, when individuals make honest decisions to experience the sensations in life they enjoy most, they always make decisions to create Art. In light of Immanuel Kant, Art then is expressed sensations: “By itself a sensation is merely the awareness of a stimulus; we have a taste on the tongue, an odor in the nostrils, a sound in the ears, a temperature on the skin, a flash of light on the retina, a pressure on the fingers: it is the raw crude beginning of experience; it is what the infant has in the early days of its groping mental life; it is not yet knowledge… Sensation is unorganised stimulus.”(2) I’d even go so far to suggest that even in the creation of beautiful tragic Art, the Artist cathartically enjoys the sensations experienced and expressed during creation.
Art begins with honesty, it is an honest expression. What is it that the soul is honestly expressing? At its foundation, it is freedom. As when a young child with crayons freely draws on the surface of a piece of white paper, the freedom that child experiences, and thus expresses in his/her lack of an attempt to create Art, is the foundation of Art itself. Because the aim of training for any sort of Artist is to eventually reach the point where one creates naturally - like a child - that is, one creates without trying; creating, freely and with ease.
First, comes the honesty of a want to express one's truths of existence - from sense experience (sensations) - whether those truths are what one sees, hears, smells, tastes, or feels - the individual either paints, sings, designs, develops, writes, performs, et cetera. It is from this honest expression, and the use of skilful techniques found in every profession, that allows for the creation of Art. I propose that one is naturally (by nature) an Artist in any profession, so long as one honestly expresses themselves, one way or another, using the skills of that profession. A surgeon, for example, in their honest, natural want to save a life in the moment must also be free to express that truth with a scalpel; to express oneself is to exercise one’s absolute freedom to create whatever one wants, to accomplish the goal set out for. Freedom of expression is the absolute freedom to apply one’s best effort in communicating honest sensations - whether those sensation be the want to save a life or to represent the sky on stretched canvas; expression as such, is creating what one wants in order to - as clearly as possible - communicate one’s truths.
It is first and foremost the freedom to express oneself which allows for an honest expression; as such, for one to honestly express freely, one must honestly experience freedom, quod erat demonstrandum. With this knowledge, it is such that, at this point, Art takes its first evolutionary step; in this child-like state, Art/Artist must now grow from innocence to experience, by continuing to choose to experience freedom. A child knows not of the challenges faced in choosing freedom - the experience of the effects of one’s decision to choose Art in the face of all else. This is also known as: Art’s fight for freedom to be expressed by means of the individual soul.
In this now adolescent stage of Art, and accordingly - the Artist, in order to grow in freedom, one must evolve in technique; it is here that the non-technical stylings of the child naturally gives way to the technical abilities of experienced youth. It is from the Artist’s natural want to express, honestly, that they begin to develop their technique; the technique in which they shall then begin the journey of mastering. The Artist is now faced with the reality of hard work, in order to develop and evolve their technique, to the point of personal mastery; here, now, the Artist studies.
The Artist studies peers and masters alike as one and the same - free to learn something from all. It is in studying the works, techniques and stylings of others, especially the Greats to have come before, that the Artist finds their place. Not only in terms of the Art which they create - whether pertinent to a specific movement, genre, model etc. - but, it is also at this point where the Artist and their Art recognise the heights to which they must aspire to reach; the Artist honestly experiences honest greatness by experiencing great works of Art.
By experiencing Da Vinci, Beyoncé, Spinoza, Picasso, Kanye West, The Beatles, Velázquez, Michael Jordan, Newton, Plato, and the many more masters of many crafts/professions - the Artist experiences honest hard work. The Artist themself may not consciously realise that they experience this, but their soul does.
Nirvana (oil on canvas). 18 H x 24 W
Every great Artist, any individual one would gladly place the title of “a master at their craft’, will forever and always concur that it is hard work creating Art. It is the hardest one will ever work, always and forever giving one’s work their best effort (in any field which one honestly, naturally does this, they create Art) - yet it is also the greatest life one will ever experience. When an observer experiences a great work of Art, they too experience hard work. What the observer experiences is the flip side of hard work, the proverbial other side of the coin; they experience, experiencing hard work. Just in the way that a great performer can never experience his/her Art live - it is the observer outside of the creator who experiences the hard work being/been put into the Art created. The soul experiences this; even if the conscious individual does not understand this - the subconscious individual does.
“Great” works of Art are such for just this reason; honest hard work taken on freely of one's own accord. Now Art, and such the Artist, in their youth, come to realise that although foundationed on freedom - the direction for the evolution of both is in the direction of the freedom to work hard at expressing oneself.
Nirvana (oil on canvas). 18 H x 24 W
At this point Art and the Artist enter their maturity; not freedom without control, or, control without freedom, but instead - in line with the Aristotelian “golden mean”, and the Buddhist “middle way” - the effortlessness of freedom with the mastery of technique. Freedom mastered.
It is here, in the stages of freely mastering one’s natural technique - discovered through the child-like state of honest expression, that the Artist matures - as such, both Art and the Artist grow further in experience, thus, in wisdom. The Artist, in this age of maturity and the growth of wisdom, enters artistic maturity - using their (forever mastering) technique to express wisdom - having a truly authentic opinion.
Now appears the final revelation of the “the soul’s expression of freedom”. First, the soul must be free to express, then - freely - it must choose to master its natural technique discovered in freely expressing itself. It is in the journey of one mastering their own unique, natural technique that the soul grows in its understanding of absolute freedom. Through the experience of honest hard work, over time, the individual soul (the subconscious) grows in its abilities, and its understanding of existence - time - through hindsight; wisdom. It is the Artist’s natural expression of these truths of wisdom which is their collection of mature artistic works.
Because the great Artist chooses Liberrimo - Absolute Freedom to be an Artist, especially with regards to the actions in their control, for the development and creation of their Art, the truth in the wisdom which all great Artist’s express, their authentic opinion, is first and foremost of their honest experience of sensations of freedom, of Absolute Freedom. It is these honest sensations which the Artist - in the creation of their greatest works - honestly expresses.
It is in having different individual points of truth on Liberrimo - on being an Artist - from different Artists, that a diversity of works exists. Not only in the natural techniques different Artists master, but also in the different truthful experiences and expressions of Liberrimo itself; it is in the experience of these many different points of truth, by the observer of Art, when understood to be truth, that the aforementioned “natural truths” of existence are revealed. This is the experience of Art’s interaction with the soul - an honest experience of truth.
To truly be an Artist one must be free in absolute terms, or one is not considered an Artist; an Artist must express in all honesty their honest experiences of absolute freedom. This is my definition of an Artist, one who expresses honestly the experience of Liberrimo. True Art as it were is great Art, great Art is honest expression, and honest expression is always beautiful, for it is one's best effort. As Benedetto Croce proclaims: “An appropriate expression, if appropriate, is also beautiful, beauty being nothing but the precision of the image, and therefore of the expression.”(3) This is true, so long as the word “appropriate” is not misunderstood as simply suitable, or good enough, rather the greatest one could possibly express truth.
All being said then, why is it the obligation of every individual to experience Art? Because I believe it the obligation of every individual to educate themselves in many universal truths of existence, in order to continuously better understand life, and as so revealed, Art is a natural truth - for it is honesty. It is truthful, honest expression of the many individual truths from different cosmic points of view; it is expression from different souls. “To give artistic form to a content of feeling means, then, impressing upon it the character of totality, breathing into it the breath of the cosmos. Thus understood, universality and artistic form are not two things but one.”(4) Therefore, the art of creating Art is in the Artist’s mastered ability to allow Art freely reveal itself; the Artist is a vessel which the subconscious uses to express itself - its truths - and absolute freedom is the first lesson an Artist must understand, because, first and foremost, the Artist must learn to let go of control in order for Nature - the soul, the subconscious - to play its part. It is then the Artist’s trained skill which when applied to in Absolute Freedom creates the best possible expression - beauty. At this point, it is important to remember that, “nature cannot be commanded except by being obeyed.”(5) As such; Art, the Soul’s expression of Liberrimo, or, Nature’s natural expression of Absolute Freedom.
Nirvana (oil on canvas). 18 H x 24 W
Moving forward from this point, what does any of this mean for the Artist, and in turn Art? First, the Artist naturally reveals - to themselves - a unique self-expressive artistic technique; this unique technique is revealed to the Artist in honest expression. It is from the Artist’s natural want, nay need to express themselves, by way of self-expressive techniques - be it painting, singing, writing, performing, cooking, dancing, et cetera - that the Artist finds the foundation of their Art. The Absolute Freedom to express.
From this point, the Artist proceeds on the journey of mastering their own creative, expressive technique. The goal to be accomplished - or better yet, the horizon to be reached - is the greatest form of mastering one's own technique within a craft; greatness. This makes the journey for one's own artistic greatness a never ending quest, for the horizon is never reached; however, in the Artist's natural journey of moving towards the horizon of greatness, the Artist inevitably arrives at a point once dreamt of. It is here that the Artist finally understands; the journey to greatness is till death do us part.
There is no nobler a journey than that of absolute hard work in order to reach one's fullest potential - either as an individual or as a team - most especially when that hard work is in “appropriately” expressing truths - creating Art. Now the mature Artist, dedicated to forever being better at expressing themselves, expands on their artistic works; no longer a single painting, a single song, a single dish, a single write up of opinion/thought - now projects: a collection of paintings, an album of songs, a menu of dishes, a book of philosophical ideas. The mature Artist, the honest Artist, especially in the creation of a project, does so only to deeper express truths.
As such, it is at this point where I, Art and the Artist, must state my intentions moving forward. Having experienced the natural evolution of the Artist, thus experienced the natural evolution of Art, my next most immediate step is the creation of a collection. The truths to be expressed are my truths on the feelings (sensations) of Liberrimo. A state of absolute happiness, freedom, truth, peace, nirvana, enlightenment, bliss. Why? Because this is my truth, and just as I believe it is the obligation of every individual to experience Art, I also believe it is the obligation of every individual to create something worth being experienced. For the truths of Liberrimo can only truly be expressed by the soul; this is why Art exists, because some things cannot be explained, so they must be expressed. How does one explain the sensations of absolute happiness, freedom and truth? To do Liberrimo any justice - to do the state of Nirvana any justice - one must express it as honestly and appropriately as possible - to the best of their abilities.
One must choose the path of Absolute Freedom - the path of the Artist - in order to freely and honestly experience, thus express, the truths of the existence of the Artist. The observer observes the creation, it is only the creator themselves - the Artist - who will ever truly know if they have created art or not - if they have given a piece and project their “best effort”. Once the creation is complete, the Artist may then let go of it and express themselves again - as appropriately as possible - simply for the joy felt from the soul expressing its truths of experience.
Citations
“Francis Bacon, III. The Essays”, as cited in Durant, W. (2009). The Story of Philosophy. New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, p.142.
“Immanuel Kant and German Idealism”, as cited in Durant, W. (2009). The Story of Philosophy. New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, pp. 348–352.
Kemp, Gary. "Croce's Aesthetics", as cited in Edward N. Zalta. (Fall 2018 Edition) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, URL <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/croce-aesthetics/>
Kemp, Gary. "Croce's Aesthetics", as cited in Edward N. Zalta. (Fall 2018 Edition) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, URL <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/croce-aesthetics/>
“Francis Bacon, I. The Advancement of Learning”, as cited in Durant, W. (2009). The Story of Philosophy. New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, p.153.
