The Best Gift « Barbara Nwosu’s Blog

Author: Barbara Nwosu

Title: “Flames of Life – No Ordinary Bowl of Fruit!”

Series: The Aesthetic Pleasures of Contemporary Art

Publisher: Wholistic Lifestyle Consultants (2007)

Date of completion or publication: 9/21/2007

Word Count of Text: 616

Brief Description: The Objective Value of Contemporary Visual Art

“Flames of Life – No Ordinary Bowl of Fruit!”

It is commonly believed that a person’s response to contemporary visual art, music, literature or performing arts is a mystical or spiritual experience.

Since art can reflect powerfully emotional values to the beholder, art can be loved, appreciated, and enjoyed for those values. The art work itself, however, is an extension of the artist and thus can never be spiritually possessed or owned by anyone else, even though the physical ownership and copyrights can be transferred or sold.

Today, there are more media forms such as digital music, photos and video. Digital and other new technology has made our lives more visually and musically centered. A lot of this is due to feelings of insecurity in an increasingly insecure world.

Television is the common visual hypnotist today.  Another form of escapism penetrating our society is video games.  Virtual reality products are used to avoid the personal responsibility for creating our own personal world.  This particular form of contemporary art is used to escape into a false or artificial world.

Adding Pleasures to Life

The enjoyment of the aesthetics of contemporary visual arts is a rational pursuit.  Adding pleasures to life is a gift.  A positive or negative response to contemporary visual art generally reflects a person’s deepest, most important values.

For example, destructive people can respond positively to art that reflects neurotic values or even value destruction.  I believe that the reason that there are so many electronic toys today is that society is addicted to external feedback and distractions.  

Aesthetics reflect a person’s most important values in a concrete way, providing powerful emotional fuel to seek ever greater personal growth and achievements.

Aesthetic pleasures are important to the growth and development of one’s psychological, social and emotional well-being and health.  The psychological pleasure derived from an art work comes from the similarity of the artist’s values and sense of life to one’s own values.  Each person has a unique perspective.

Values, especially aesthetic ones can be either objective or subjective, neurotic values.  Contemporary visual art forms (sometimes urban) is thought provoking and is often meant to be just that.  With sufficient knowledge, all art can be judged by precise, objective standards.

Objective evaluation can include sense of life, the subject or theme chosen by the artist, the manner and skill in which the artist produced the presentation. Societal and personal issues and events influence the way we perceive aesthetics.  When one looks at contemporary visual art that they feel has no basis in reality and serves no practical purpose, there is still an emotional and psychological response to the object or the theme.

“The Flame”

Admiration of a piece of art comes from the viewer’s evaluation of the artist’s skill, technique, style, or integrity.  When an individual looks at a piece or collection of visual art, they can dislike the values, the sense of life, or the theme of an art work, but still appreciate the artist’s skill or style.

When nontraditional contemporary art is displayed in public places, lively thought provoking conversations often occur.  Where I live, the entire city is a work of art.  There are contemporary visual artwork “landmarks”.

The false belief that all art is entirely subjective and cannot be evaluated on an objective basis is apparent when experiencing Prince Monyo’s sculptured bronze “Flames of Life”.  The bronze hammered sculpture in the center of the city is quite remarkable.  The manner in which the artist presented this work illuminates the patience, thought, skill and awe that it takes to have a value producing society.  The sculpture somehow draws you in to slow down and enjoy life for the sake of life itself.

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is my first post.

I started this blog to post my thoughts, ideas and comments.  I was encouraged to do so by Nathan Shaw.  Nathan is the author of a novel, “I Am Earth’s Survivor” .  This novel is extremely thought provoking.  In this fact/fiction novel, he describes the current and future status of life on planet earth.

Although I am not a real fan of fiction, this novel is a must read.   Modern civilization is not really what it appears to be.  It is anything but civilized.  The book talks about the reality of where mankind has evolved from and where we are headed.

The possibilities facing our society (extinction at our own hands) is disturbing.  I was able to see that we live in an anticivilization and at the same time a supercivilization.    This book is life changing.

You can find out more about Nathan Shaw at http://www.supercivilization.net or check out his other site at http://organizedlivingworld.com.  His work with New Technology, NeoTech, Mind-Matrix, Success-Matrix, and other works is amazing.

Now is the time to integrate our lives so that the life we have is actually worth living.   Since I started using Nathan’s products and services, my whole life has changed.   I am experiencing extreme happiness, total fulfillment with life  and I know that the God-Woman that is me is immortal.