An Out from Down in the Dumps - Art as Weapon

"The first condition for the liberation of mind is the liberation of man...." Andre Breton figured it out. As an individual in society, one not only contends with who he or she is as a person, but to compound the issue of finding one's place in the world is the idea of being encumbered with the responsibilities of mundanity (at this moment, I have ten research papers in my car that I still have not graded, but I'd rather talk about my liberation from the papers to discuss art). Ahem. My witty repertoire aside, the idea of freeing man to expand one's mind is seminal in understanding what makes for a satisfied humanity.

So, clearly, one has to determine what is the cause for the feeling of satiety in her own life; I think we get glimpses of it in who we are as people, and also, the things that we are exposed to as we develop into the "irreducible self" (thank you, Mr. James Joyce) we inevitably become. However, I think exposure to art, and the arts in general, help us in discovering the divine within ourselves. Quirt, a Surrealist artist, argued that, "...we all have essentially the same fantasy life ... and [the artist should learn to] release his own fantasies ...." in order to evoke something from humanity. Maybe one can argue that part of this same fantasy we all share is the desire for beauty, in any way one thinks of it, in order to remind us that there is something divine within us inherently. Even if it gets mired down in the "everydays" of life, we always see, read, or experience something that breaks through the stupor of life's heavy burdens. And even if we don't literally shout for joy, we can feel that joy surge. And that is the purpose of art. If life beats us, and can at times make us downtrodden, then art as a weapon makes sense. The troubles of life could use a cudgel from life's beauties every once in a while.