After having my passion for art come out unexpectedly on random people in various conversations, I figured I should spare everyone the headache of hearing me repeat myself and put out my opinions to, perhaps, influence those I hope will hear me. I am not an expert in the visual arts. I have a bachelor’s degree in art history and will be the first to admit that my knowledge of art is limited. However, my passion is not. I have fallen in love with contemporary art and the potential that it has to influence our society for the better. I believe art has not only the power to connect people but influence you when you are not even aware of it. And I believe beauty, more specifically beauty in art, has the power to stop you in your tracks at times, arrest you with an experience of something outside of yourself, something powerful yet indescribable to others.
It all started with my professor stating in a lecture that “every generation needs to reinvent for itself what is beautiful.” For whatever reason, this quotation struck a chord and was stored away for contemplation. What did he mean when he said that? And what did it mean that the majority of art in our time is dark and hopeless? Perhaps I am making some generalizations but, prior to this point, my experience of art was as wide as the average persons—what I see in the news, in magazines, or in the few museums I had ever been intrigued enough to enter. I didn’t understand the contemporary art that I encountered and was not inspired by what I saw. I often just felt confused by it or wondered why that was called art. After ruminating on this quote about “reinventing beauty,” I felt called to do something about it. If I didn’t like what my generation had to say about beauty, then maybe I should add my voice to the chorus. Maybe I needed to say that I thought beauty was something different. Then, I started to read and research to find contemporary artists that I liked and wanted to support. Needless to say, it was like finding a small window into a giant room that no one ever tells you about. Many amazing artists and many people who wanted to change where art was going and turn it to a different purpose. Though my initial search started off in search of visual artists that I wanted to support, I have found artists in other mediums that I think worthy of praise as well. Although this search started off in search of beauty, that is not usually the only thing I find. I don’t know if my thoughts or opinions matter to anyone, but this is my journey of finding things worth looking at and thinking about—things that draw me to something more than myself. This is my vote that beauty will transform the world.
