Thespian Musings: Aesthetics

 Real talk.

When I get passionate about something if I don't get it out of my head sooner or later I will explode.

Or implode.

Or whatever the proper term is. 

Nevermind.

Here goes:

One of my favorite words is 

Aesthetics is a particular approach to art which is pleasing to the sense, particularly sight, especially in terms of art and beauty.

I guarantee no one has the same appreciation for the same type of art or the same definition of beauty as anyone else. 

My brother takes some of the teeth from deer he's hunted, polishes them and wears them around his neck. Apparently, this is a fashion statement. 

I think wearing teeth around your neck is gross. 

My sister gets a huge kick out of painting gorgeous landscapes and things, and she loves going to art museums (she lives in New York, so she can go to the Met whenever she wants to, circumstances permitting).

I can't paint and I happen to think art museums are boring.

However, no other member of my family understands why it's fun to put on a costume, slap a pound of makeup on one's face, and stay up all night under hot lights saying things that were written by someone else.

But I love it!

This is because we have a different sense of aesthetic. We have our or definition of what beauty is. And we have our own definition of what art is.

My personal definition of art happens to include not just framed paintings and sculpture, but theatre, dance, novels, and music. 

Ok, fine, in humanities class they probably told you the same thing, so I'm not the only one, but that's not the point. 

Art is not something that should be dictated.

By anyone. 

For any reason. 

Because beauty and art don't have to appeal to the masses. 

And when art is censored, sometimes it doesn't help as much as it hurts. 

In 1642 Parliament banned public theatre. No plays, no actors, no theatres, no street performers, no nothing. They did it because art and theatre were seen as frivolous and a waste of time. 

I happen to like frivolity. 

Back in the 1930s, the Hayes Code was introduced to Hollywood, which had rules on everything--plots characters, words out of people's mouths--and some of them were real weird.

It didn't help the movies--I think it made them worse.

Art is created.

It is there to make you think.

To make you feel things.

It is there to educate. 

To help you understand something you didn't understand before. 

What you shouldn't do--what you can't do--to any kind of art(painting, sculpture, film, play, poetry, novel) is dictate it.

By defining what is and what isn't art--"good" art--we are compromising another's definition of aesthetics.  

And that's a deadly a threat as anything else can be. 

Is it ok to be offended, disgusted, appalled by the art someone else chooses to create? 

Of course!

Does that mean because this particular piece of art didn't have any aesthetic appeal to you personally that it should be destroyed and that artist should be ostracized?

Of course not!

Art speaks differently to everyone because of our individual aesthetic appeal. I can't tell you the number of times I have had to bite my tongue when a friend or family member heaps praise on a book, or film as "the best thing [they've] ever read/seen" and I saw the same film or read the same book and think it was a complete waste of time. 

And that's my "nice critique".

I've heard that the late Blake Edwards(director of the original Pink Panther films and married to Julie Andrews from 1969 until his death) wrote and directed the brilliant black comedies "10" and "S.O.B."(if you don't know what those are, google them). Julie Andrews is in both films, but in "S.O.B." she makes this face

And people who have seen the film, or heard the famous story about Julie Andrews in this film, know why she's making the face.

Having read Julie Andrews' latest memoire ("Homework: A Memoire of My Hollywood Years") and recaps of the films I know what they are about(and why she's making the face above), but I will never watch them--not because they're poorly written, or directed, or acted(see "brilliant black comedies" above), but they don't have any aesthetic appeal for me.

Neither do most of the Horror genre(though I will admit to seeing and rather enjoying  a few "The Woman in Black 1 &2", "A Quiet Place", and "The Village" and my favorite tv show is "Supernatural", which is about as close to horror as I will ever willingly get and it's actually not that scary, but whatever).

But I have several friends who are self confessed horror-heads and would probably get a huge kick out of "10" and "S.O.B."

Which is great, because it means that particular niche of the art world is still being enjoyed.

And that's the point.

Art promotes conversation, be it good, bad or ugly(yes, sometimes a play or film or can lead to ugly confrontation, witness the book burning scene in the original "Footloose"). And we as a society need to have conversations. 

We thrive on that stuff.

No one is going to force you to like a film, or play, or novel or painting. And maybe something you love is something that is highly offensive to someone else.

And that's ok.

You are free to choose to participate in/attend/read that particular piece of art or not.

That's the beauty of art.

And that's what's amazing about aesthetics. 

So those are my thoughts, and my brain is still in one piece. 

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk 😛