Artist Alley

 

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

The Arts and the Artist

The one irrepressible truth about the Arts is that No One owns the Artist! What makes an artist is that their independent voice is their own. They write, paint, compose in their solitude, and never, never will give this process up to anyone.

As I watched the Oval Office Occupant's name being attached to The Kennedy Center, I caught a sob in my throat, for this vile man's name to be on top of Kennedy's name, was like robbing our collective reverence for a President who gave everything for our Country. Stealing the spotlight by inserting his name   over Kennedy's name on this memorial building of a fallen President, for the Arts, is unforgivable. This person has contributed nothing for the Arts. It is a discernible fact that his idea of aesthetics is plastering gold painted artifacts looking like Walmart whimsy stickers all over the Oval Office.

In many ways, the Artist is as powerful as a king or president. His/Her works are conceived without any input from an outside agency, the process is singular, the making is singular, and the result is a product of original thought. The Movie, The Fountain Head, with Gary Cooper's soliloquy is one of the best description of an Artist's duty him/herself I have heard. Sometimes when a commission structure is involved, the artist still has the option to walk away, or destroy, and sometimes that happens and No One can stop Him/Her.. The original inspiration is solely owned by the Artist. The Artist listens to His/Hers Truth, and it is that truth which makes an effort become a work of Art. 

The Artists of the past and will in the Future give a voice about the world we live in and will, tell truth to power, whatever the price may be. The Arts give us beauty, musical rhythms of our day, challenge our possibilities, thoughts about the what ifs in our world, and ask us to stop, listen, read, and to consider our conditions of life's choices. The Poem, Chicago, by Carl Sandburg makes us aware of what our lives are made of and what we take for granted. I read yesterday that in one of Tyson's butchering plants, they kill 500 cows a day, this is just one plant. If this potential picture was displayed on TV commercial, it would have an impact of horror. Art describe acts of horror, writes stories, sing songs about it, and it also tells about our wondrous world and gives us reason to be hopeful . The Artist can tell these stories and songs, with truth about our real world. 

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was designed for a lasting memorial for President John Kennedy. The dominate element, of the project was to give the building a legacy of strength and integrity for a man who was loved and respected for his courage and his truth of being. To have someone who is the antithesis of this legacy insert his name over Kennedy's name is blasphemy of the highest order.

The Artists who have declined to perform on order of this would be king are in my view, heroes. They are facing a potential threat for their works to be defamed and destroyed. They walk away from this would be king, with their truth of purpose intact and honoring their own purpose of being.

The Cookers walked away...

The Arts belong to everyone, the Artist belongs only to Him/Her self, and will always, always, tell stories of truth for it is,

                        Truth that creates Great Art.