Rejected: Art, Therapy and Divine.

[In the process of writing my second book, some articles/chapters don't make the cut. I figured I'd post these rough first-drafts here instead of just throwing them away. This is the first time I'm typing this on a computer - up until now, this was handwritten. Read more about my second book here, and you can get my first book here.]

Art, for me, falls into two categories: Therapy and Divine.

Therapy art is as the name implies, using artistic means to relieve stress and work out personal issues. I don’t like this kind of art, not for what it does to help the artist, but because those stresses are collected in that art. By showing it to others, that stress, or a small part of it, is transferred to the viewer – a step in the wrong direction. Better to destroy the work as soon as it is done.

Divine art, by contrast, transcends the artist’s limited view and stresses and shines with a beauty, a something uncertain but unmistakable. Coming into contact with this art, the viewer is lifted higher, made a better person for it.

It’s impossible to tell these two apart from any objective means – any subject, any medium could be Therapy or Divine. The subjective method of telling them apart lies in in feeling: After experiencing  this art, do you feel Better or Worse?

Better = Divine.

Worse = Therapy.

I’ve tried everything in my power to keep my therapy writing a million miles from this book. This is not to imply I’ve written anything “divine” …but it is my truest hope that you feel better after reading this book.

Otherwise, what’s the point?

….well, making money I guess.

Get Volume 1 Now!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 18:29 and is filed under Rejected and tagged with Art, Volume 2. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.