Sunday 10 June 2012

A purposeful act is a conscious act and works on the assumption that all things bar human biped do not act with a purpose beyond the basic needs, for instance food shelter and survival. Painting is both necessary and unnecessary at the same time, because without painting the Artists life is not fulfilled. It is his or her purpose alone? Let us say instead that it is the reverse. It was the purpose intended by the materials and tools, to be developed so that the Artist can use them. Example: When the guitar was invented, it was for a very specific mentality-musical, but it was the nature of the instrument to come about in the first place and what ever precursors it. Possibly the inventors of such crafts did not create the things in themselves but the things created them and so it continues infinitely. Human consciousness is merely receptive to such influences more so than animals.

When survival becomes more imperative however we protect the vital elements that keep us alive. If nature acted purposefully would it not be the intention of nature to create books, technology, paint, pen, paper for very different but equally important reasons i.e pages of a book get damp and mouldy? a cat will sit under the book case, birds on a line or in the roof-ear wigs under the rags, dust settles on the computer etc etc? The wire is a perch. For now, if we consider them for our own reasons. Note book, pen, book to study from. This activity has been used in exactly the same way by Artists and Philosophers for centuries, but then there are newer technologies.

Let us consider that nature does not act purposefully and does not do things because they are better that way because there is no purpose, just merely organisms that evolve and become more efficient and learn to adapt. We have become what we are out of necessity in order to survive. It is out of necessity that things occur and often by accident. If I am struggling with a painting, it is by accident that the brush strokes work because it is a necessity that it doesn't ruin, there is no other option. An accident that is positive can happen even though it is a more natural occurrence in painting for it to go wrong, because the stuff is so difficult to control. In fact it is more natural for nothing to happen at all-for music not to be written, novels not to be constructed and paintings never to be produced! If these things were done out of choice without the necessity, it would be difficult to sustain our interest in them. Money is a modern day necessity and so is communication and technology.

We can see why the Art world and music industry has changed so much in recent years. Everything-creation itself is by accident-the parts of the body work together because of a series of accidents that are specific to that organism. On appearance it would seem that we are intended to carry out specific functions such as breathing and eating but we realise that we're capable of pushing our human capacity towards so much more. The first obstacle however is the necessity of our actions, it is our flaws and inabilities that lead us towards the pursuit of unnecessary activities, because we were unable to function normally like the average person. There is this sense that the Artist has run out of options and has no other choice but to paint. He isn't capable of doing any other profession other than his or her Art. As we approach a state of actuality a great deal of what we are dies apart from absolute necessity."We survive because spontaneously we have been put together in a useful way." The problem occurs when something new and unfamiliar is brought into the equation and this unfortunately is one of the tasks of the Artist, to invent something different in every work s/he does. Our bodies are designed to turn out as they do either always or usually, since hands could be used for playing guitar or holding a pen or brush rather that gathering and eating, like our ancestors.