Exploration and Discovery

WHY ART IS NECESSARY

During the last couple of days, listening to music while driving or painting or cooking, I thought of why I listen to so much music and what it does for me.

Music, one of the performing arts, sets the mood for me, excites me, calms me, and inspires me.  It is food for my inner self; my soul. I need it just to be.

I listen to “Cabaret”, “Three Penny Opera” when I’m cooking a big dinner for family or friends.

I listen to Jerry Lee Lewis or Gypsy Kings when I drive to Maggie’s Friday night dances to get into the mood.

I listen to Buena Vista Social Club, Leonard Cohen, jazz, opera, World music and Mozart when I paint.

I think about how all these artists from various parts of the world started making music and doing what they believed in, enhancing our lives while doing what they loved to do.

The same goes for other performing arts such as theatre.  Just recently some friends of ours, Beth and Brian, took us to see “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” at the Arts Club on Granville Island, Vancouver.  It was an outstanding performance!  I was amazed at the stamina of these actors performing for nearly 3 1 /2 hours with 2 short intermissions.  All for the love of their art! 

The same goes for literary arts such as “Don Quixote”, one of the greatest literary works from the imagination of Miguel de Cervantes . It is my favourite!

This brings me to painting.  Visual artists have an innate desire to create and keep on creating, no matter what. 

Sometimes the art is for the pure pleasure of sharing with the public.  Other times it’s the need to let something out or trying to create some kind of order in their lives.  It is all necessary!