man does not live by bread alone

Man does not live by bread alone. Well I wondered where that came from, and sure enough it is from the bible. Well religion that is certainly something more to live for than bread if you believe it, then there is family, or some kind of political theory, or some sports team, and I suppose art is in there somewhere, and for some people I suppose bread is enough in itself.

You know when you’re at work, you really don’t have to think about anything else, you don’t have to worry about what to do, the boss tells you what to do. Oh you can try to have fun at work, you can take pride in your work, you can try to advance, but you don’t have to do any of those things, because you are at work, and you are earning that paycheck, and that’s all you need to do.

But then you come home, and then what do you do? Are there people who just eat supper, maybe watch a little tv and then go to bed? I guess there are, actually it seems like there are a lot of people like that, confronting a poll about what they do when they get off work, I bet a lot of people would check the box that says Nothing.

I think the idea that art is something special, that artists are special people who have some kind of vision and can reveal some truth and that doing it or appreciating it can enrich you and make you a better person, is something relatively new, dating from maybe the last few hundred years. Before that the artist was more of a craftsman in the service of religion or some ruler, he did what they wanted him to do and wasn’t expected to come up with his own ideas. Anymore the artist is supposed to come up with his own ideas, it’s not enough to paint a pretty picture of some mountain, he has to explain why he chose that mountain, why he put that cloud there, and then he has to have some theory about art.

You would think that would be a burden, but I think most artists like to have a theory. It pumps them up, makes them look more important. They are not merely a craftsman, they are a philosopher, a deep thinker.

There is a way to build a skyscraper or to play third base. There are certain steps you can take and if you follow the rules you will be successful. But there are no set steps that you can follow and be sure of painting a great picture or write a great song or whatever, you just kind of aim at it, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

Art is a ragbag of stuff, and if you submit it to the crucible it falls apart, contradictions occur, and some of it makes no sense, but you can’t cut them out because then you are left with a handful of dust.

You can talk about it, and I do a lot, but I don’t think you will ever come up with something where you can say this is true and that isn’t. I think sometimes people take it too seriously.