Sarah Gibbard Cook
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Do Artists Need an Excuse?

7/3/2017

2 Comments

 
A nasty little voice in my head says writing is self-indulgence when there’s so much that needs to be done, protested, supported, or fixed in the world at large. A wiser voice in my gut says I’m doing what I’m called to.

Writers, and perhaps all artists, try to understand a little about the world and share that understanding with others. Much of my favorite fiction touches on justice, ethics, relationships, motivation, and the interplay of individual and society. It leads me to perceive or experience life in fresh and deepening ways.

​​Philosopher and author A.C. Grayling wrote, “To ask what art is good for is not exactly the same as asking what its purpose is.” Art and literature are their own excuse for being. Novelists and painters create for pure joy, or to pay the bills, or for any purpose or none. Their creations may be entirely self-indulgent and still do good in the world at large.
2 Comments
Beth Genne
7/3/2017 10:49:23 am

Balanchine compared himself to a gardener cultivating
dancers and dances for them, as a gardener would roses, to be there to be enjoyed by those who see them.

He also compared an evening at the ballet to dining out and himself to a cook. He needed to provide a balanced and delicious meal for his audiences. First a little appetizer to tempt the palette, then a hearty nourishing "meat and potatoes ballet" and finally dessert!

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Sarah link
7/3/2017 11:00:15 am

Beth, I love the comparisons of choreographer to a gardener or a chef! Cultivation, planning, setting out a sequence, all to give enjoyment to the viewer or diner. Grayling says art is to elicit a response, as Balanchine so wonderfully does.

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    I'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin. 

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