Good art grows on us. It looks different, and can be seen in all different lights, even in darkness. Reflections add mystery to it.

Sometimes it can be disturbing and has to be taken away, until a later time when it can be accepted. Of a certain sculpture it was said that only Picasso was strong enough to live with it. A good work of art exerts its presence on us, and we are changed by it for the better. When good art is taken away, we miss it.

The fact that a piece of art has vitality, or life, does not in itself, make it good. Sometimes art is granted synonymous status with good... and good with pleasing. I believe there is such a thing as bad, even terrible art. Sometimes when we say, "That's not art!", we really mean, "That's bad art!". When it is taken away, we're relieved. The question is, "Are we changed because of it?... and how?"
 

"... A serious study of any important body of human knowledge, or theory, or belief, if undertaken with a critical but not a cruel mind, would in the end yield some secret, some valuable insight, into the nature of life and the true end of man" (6)
Robertson Davies
 

"The picture bears its pretext, the reason for its existence, within it. You may carry a picture... from a church to a drawing room; from a museum to your study. Essentially independent, necessarily complete, it need not immediately satisfy the imagination: on the contrary, it should lead it, little by little... it does not harmonize with this or that environment; it harmonizes with things in general, with the universe, it is an organism." (7)
Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger
 

"A work becomes a work of art when one re-evaluates the values of nature and adds ones own spirituality" (7)
Emile Nolde
 

"SPIRITUAL - 1. Things of a spiritual, ecclesiastical or religious nature " (8)
"SPIRIT - 1. An animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms." (9)
"SPIRIT - soul, temper " (10)
 

"People who have experienced `creative states' would affirm that they are remarkably spontaneous...Every creative act involves... a new innocence of perception, liberated from the cataract of accepted belief..." (11)

 

"... everybody is capable of being creative. Unfortunately, many people have had their creative talent dulled through an un-empathetic environment or upbringing. Children often demonstrate remarkable signs of creativity which are rare among inhibited adults." (12)

6. Robertson Davies, The Deptford Trilogy, (Great Britain, The Chaucer Press, 1986) p. 173

7. Herschel B. Chipp, contributions by Peter Selz and Joshua C. Taylor, Theories of Modern Art - A Source Book by Artists and Critics, (Berkeley and L.A. California, U. of Cal. Press, 1968) p. 210
8. Herschel B. Chipp, Theories of Modern Art - A Source Book by Artists and Critics, contributions by Peter Selz and Joshua C. Taylor (Berkeley and L.A., California, U. of Cal. Press, 1968), p.210
9.  A Merriam - Webster, ed. H. B. Woolf, Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, (Springfield, Mass. U.S.A.,

G & C. Merriam Co. 1976) p. 1122
10. ibid., p. 1121
11. The New American Roget's College Thesaurus, ed. by Albert H. Morehead and staff, (New York, Grosset & Dunlap , 1958) p. 344

12. Simon Majaro, The Creative Gap, (Biddles Ltd., Guildford and King's Lynn, Great Britain, 1988),p.52