saving ART

Camille Paglia wrote the most amazing article, How Capitalism Can Save Art. Camille is a University Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at the University of the Arts in Philidelphia.

I think I’ve read it about 10 times now, and it’s just so powerful and well written. Check this paragraph out:

…”Capitalism has it’s weaknesses. But it is capitalism that ended the stranglehold of the hereditary aristocracies, raised the standard of living for most of the world and enabled the emancipation of women. The routine defamation of capitalism by armchair leftists in academe and the mainstream media has cut young artists and thinkers off from the authentic cultural energies of our time.”

I love my iPhone too. And I love this lovely Mac Book I write this blog on. I love this amazing machine that allows my voice, art and website to reach out to anyone, anywhere. But thankfully I was educated in an ART school, where making something every day mattered. Looking deeply and thinking long and hard about what you saw was our everyday fare. The history of art was our timeline and connection to the past that put our history in perspective.

God, I loved art school. It taught me to think and see in a hundred different directions. It’s a sad thing to see the arts diminishing in our troubled public education system. It will make for a weak society.  Even as we advance technologically we are in fact getting less and less civilized I fear.

(featured image – DRAWING 101, canvas collage by Catherine Massaro)