Son,

Art has influenced human endeavor since the first cave man scratched his charred stick on the cave wall. This spark of imagination, ignited by primitive desire, generates the energy of human change and growth.

Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Hebrews wrote the Pentateuch. The Ancient Greeks knew the value of art in influencing public opinion. Plato wrote allegories. Roman art and architecture defined an era.

The Dark Ages were defined by a lack of artistic endeavor, civilization returned in full bloom with the Italian Renaissance – a resurgence of the arts. The Renaissance artistic depiction of the Christ Story influences many people yet today. Sigmund Freud was more of an artist than a psychologist – his narrative stories of humanity fostered a new branch of science. Mark Twain ushered in an age or Realism. The Harlem Renaissance of the late 1920’s breathed life into a culture of dignity for black people living in ghettos.

The great artists are the visionaries; those people who are able to capture the emotional awareness of life before the ideas are articulated. The greatest influence of art is in the interpretation of current events, and the prediction of outcomes – Prophecy if you will. Picasso is the most famous artist in identifying the cultural trauma of Nazi Germany in the 1930’s.

Blogging is a new medium for cultural artists. Most of the current (2007) world of blogging is primitive – scratches on walls with burnt sticks. The world of technology has been dominated by doers and task masters, even social outcasts, some would use the euphemism of geeks. The paints are primitive, the brushes broad and stiff. We travel around the blogosphere, looking for truth and imagination, we find little. We have found many cave drawings – and we have found hope.

The marriage of technology with art has historically created the greatest works. Michaelangelo and DaVinci were both artist and scientist – thus their greatness. Some people with artistic flair are beginning to mix the paint of blogging. They are studying the canvas, checking the porousness of ideas absorbed by an expanding internet.

We do not know where this new partnership of disciplines will take us. We do know that in the past, when art and science combined, great things happened.

Dad

See Also: On Writing, Blogging, Journalism