A Metaphysics Of Art

"The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim."

                                                                                                               - Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

e·ter·nal  

adj.

1. Being without beginning or end; existing outside of time

tem·po·ral 

adj.

1. Of, relating to, or limited by time

the goal of the artist is to become art.

art-consumption is escapism. art-making even more so.

art dissolves ordinary reality.

art substitutes reality with a virtual reality.

no art is observed in space and time.

the observer is located in space and time but the experience of the artwork is itself timeless, spaceless.

the yearning for the experience of art is eternity's yearning for itself.

the experience of art is essence recollecting itself.

in life, where essence hides itself, art is necessary to serve as a signpost.

art is a beacon of clarity in a state of sensory chaos.

when the artist is creating art he is not present as he is usually present. because he is so absorbed in his creation that he disappears for a little while, he is able to touch upon the essence of life itself. he is no longer flung about by the many impersonal forces of the universe, he is the calm creative center in which the whole universe is dreamed up. he is the fixed keyhole through which the creative impulse flows. he is not the person anymore, but the force of creation manifesting itself through a physical body. because he dies unto the temporal world he gives birth to the eternal and therefore, if he has lost himself thoroughly in his art, he will be a bridge between the worlds. it is not possible to bring any elements from the temporal into the eternal. only the eternal survives in eternity. only the non-personal can flourish in a domain where there are no persons. therefore art does not concern the person, it is not for the person or by the person; it is the eternal recollecting the eternal. it is the beloved couple locked in a timeless ecstatic fascination for each other. though the eternal can never reveal itself as-it-is in the temporal world, it can reveal itself through it's lower cousin, the essence of eternity, essence for short. from this highest principle we derive beauty, goodness and truth; all of which are inherent in any creative act.

but the subject is really not the creator of art. the subject is more a kind of mediator of aesthetics. the artist decides when and where beauty is going to happen but he can't define beauty himself. beauty existed before he existed. he may choose to give beauty a particular expression and he may vary the expressions but his theme is timeless and universal. really to say that he controls when and where beauty is going to happen is an overstatement. beauty really just happens to anyone. it cant be forced or provoked. it just is or it just isn't. no object is in itself beautiful. beauty can't be pointed at. the artist can be in a state of mind that is itself beauty and so use his transparance to be a window for the audience but if the audience are not themselves in a state of mind that is itself beauty it makes no difference what they watch. all the artist can hope for is that he transcends his ordinary state of mind in order to reach "the other side" and serve as a reminder in space and time of the eternal theme.

the presence and function of art and artists is really a sign of the state of beauty. it is the ill fate of the temporal to forget the eternal theme and so reminders are required. beauty is not continous, not ever-present like in the eternal , so it must be re-iterated, repeated, remembered.  this is the role of the artist. he reminds people of a state of mind. he introduces them to a mystery they can if they wish choose to explore themselves, but the mystery was there all along, way before any of them existed. the people in the audience may continue to consume beauty from time to time, drawing it in one tiny piece at a time, or they may find a way to maintain the experience by reprogramming their minds and attaining a viewpoint of the world which is grounded in the feeling of beauty. the artist, having been trained by himself and by other artists, is well versed in seeking the viewpoint from which the world appears magical and transparant with luminosity. it is his skill, his work, to inhabit a certain perspective or worldview and to stay there unperturbed by the chaotic stirrings of the world ruled by conventions. his task is to forget the temporal and remember the eternal. getting caught up in the temporal usually leads to forgetting the eternal and so the artist must be aware of his forgetfulness. whenever he forgets he becomes more a person and less a window. he starts immersing himself more in the outer circumstance of his life, he starts caring more about his personal fate and he looses touch with the non-personal. the more he cares about his life, the less he remembers of eternity.  the less he cares about his life, the more he becomes pure beauty.

if he whishes he can go all the way into pure beauty entirely destroying the furnishings of his personhood and there may be in his wake a beautiful explosion of art echoing through time eternally.