IT IS MORNING YET ON CREATION DAY: ART THE BEST POSSESSION.

Notwithstanding the volume of literature on the creative process, the act of bringing into existence a work of art, there is no consensus and not likely to be one on the matter. Even the human medium for eventuate of artistic forms, the artist, cannot pontificate on the exact nature of his activity or vocation.  He remains essentially an enigma to himself.

One thing is certain, though; namely, that whatever forces or efforts underpin the manifestation of communicable artistic form, whatever the nature of the various inputs into a picture, a poem, a piece of sculpture or music, be they physical, psychological, communal, spiritual or otherwise, the process is complex and still evolving.

Detective criticism sets itself the problem of tracking down the various ‘influences’ that contribute to the form and character of a given work of art or the oeuvre of an artist. Is the goal of this type of criticism attainable? Can the human mind unravel all the extra-formal aspects of a work of art?  Or are we limited to discovering a few levels of meaning?  Is art like a magical onion with limitless skins, a phenomenon that cannot be conquered by ex-foliation? Even if our critic confines himself to only the literary in the case of poetry, can he discover that obscure line or phrase in a daily newspaper that had caught the poet’s fancy, that memorable line spoken by the inebriate man at the pub which the writer immediately appropriated, that philosophical insight into the nature of death which the weather-beaten old man at a funeral had adumbrated?

The critic has literately to undergo each and every minute bit of experience which the writer had been through, including reading every word he had read. Unless on that artist’s attestation, how does a researcher discern the etiology of those motifs that have different significations in different communities or to several artists?

The point I have been discussing is that trying to unfathomed all that goes into a work of art is a herculean task. Nevertheless, insights into the processes or stages of say a painting can be quite revealing and salutary.

Quite often what confronts the spectator is the finished not the evolving work. Sometimes the so-called sketch or study is more exciting more spontaneous and human than the final thing for we have the privileged, as it were to look over the shoulder of the painter bent over his work, eavesdrop on the poet hammering out his lines, and watch them struggle with their medium and surmount several failures. The draft or sketch can also be likened to the tentative, initial, and sometimes accidental, gestures of the actor or dancer at a rehearsal.

 When you make your MARK in life, you will always attract ERASERS. To succeed in life you must overcome the many efforts of others to pull you down. How you choose to respond to criticism is one of the most important decisions that you make. The first and great commandment about critics is: Don’t let them scare you. “It is morning yet on creation day”.