| Human beings remain the same even to this date. We build expensive spaceships and destructive nuclear weapons while people still starve to death. Large sums of money go towards space exploration while that same amount of money could be put towards feeding the starving world population. Likewise, the money that goes to the development of nuclear weapons could be used more effectively to help stabilize economic conditions. Human beings are still living and thinking too much only about their own personal gains. The consequence is mostly suffering. People strive to increase their material possessions, or to achieve fame, believing that this will bring them happiness. Of course, material wealth partially contributes to physical convenience and comfort. However, this does not guarantee the well being and development of one's mind if we do not understand the full process and conditions under which we attained our wealth. While we concentrate and compete to gain greater material wealth, we ignore the negative consequences it causes to society. It is a misperception to aim towards a successful, "good" life if it is judged solely on the value of a "respectful" person who has material wealth and nothing else. One should also focus on the process of obtaining the wealth. Likewise, contemporary art these days perceives art objects as monetarily valuable with reference to historical significance and fame of the artist. The process in making and creating the art, its ultimate value, has been mostly ignored. My relationship with art has been developing over a period of twenty years. I was interested in drawing and making visual images ever since I was a young boy. I went to art school and have been making "art" all my life. Now l am also teaching art in art school. Still there are issues and questions about art that have always remained inside me. Even until now, I could not find a satisfactory explanation or clear understanding to these questions: the same old questions like "what is art ?", "what is the most crucial part of creativity? " and "what is the ultimate [pure] value of art?" I have increased my experience and knowledge of art by seeing and studying the history of important art and artists from the historical period to contemporary art. The knowledge I received from my studies is that these works are informed by historical and social significance, which is then reflected in the completeness of the object itself. The art is strongly united with the thinking process and the intention of the artists. Moreover, the artists work with the experience accumulated from continuously increasing skill through working. The consequence is the visual representation that clearly reflects the thinking process. Hence the work's uniqueness. More important is the introduction of new knowledge, a new way of thinking which has been communicating back and forth within the society. Thus, art works that have been regarded as valuable historical objects, justified by written documents and installed in museum's collections, I would like to call this work, in my own term, the "well-done creation". I believe that everybody has probably heard that child art is the pure art form, reflecting the pure mind, and representing freely without any bondage or restrictions of theory, rules, and regulations. We can witness the similarity in children's works from all over the world. The same thing can also be witnessed in works by mental illness patients, through the art therapy process. This is because all of these works reflect the direct natural experience without strong cultural influences, that is, they have been "uncooked" by culture. I would like to call these works "the raw creation". From my teaching experience, I keep myself investigating the questions about art mentioned before. In my exchange with students' perceptions and ideas as well as observing their working process, some issues were raised. Why does some work impress me so much and make me feel so good every time I think about it? These works haven't necessarily been created based upon art historical knowledge or been executed with highly developed skills; sometimes not even with the uniqueness like the "well-done" type nor the innocence of the "raw type". Nevertheless, it gives me energy and much happiness to experience and see the freedom of expression, the pure love towards other human beings, the freedom to dream, to be imaginative and released from all restrictions. This work instills in me a sense of faith and belief in the process of understanding the value of life through art. I would like to call these works by students "the medium rare creation" |
