The greatest most implacable foe of humanity sits beside us all the time. It’s boredom and boredom is relentless. You can’t escape it – it’s built in. Without it we couldn’t live here at all, but this major element of our life experience is difficult to control. It comes in handy but can get out of hand. The clanging bell next to your head is quite distracting, but after an hour or so you won’t seem to mind. Early in the day the stockyards have a most pungent odor which disappears by lunchtime. Our perceptual apparatus is geared so that if it doesn’t bite us, fondle us, or feed us, whatever it is begins to fade into the wallpaper.
In dangerous times this boredom mechanism is a lifesaver. You won’t have time to smell the flowers when wolves are in pursuit and the critical things to think about and to be aware of at just that moment don’t want the company. When times are more comfortable boredom doesn’t retire to some back pasture, but instead turns on us and makes us miserable. It takes the joy out of the merry-go-round, reduces music to a thumping din, and drains all the interest out of the ball scores, the scenery, a partner’s conversation. Much of modern life involves various strategies to keep boredom at bay.
Some folks jump from airplanes, climb mountains, or drive too fast. They say they want to feel “alive”. The natural tendency when bored is to turn all the knobs up to nine, to dazzle the eyes with laser shows, and to burn the mouth when dining. Tolerance sets in and we’ve been increasing the dose, searching for more and more stimulation. Finally entertainment is reduced to violence and gore, popular music merges with porn, and tawdry sensation replaces art -- just nod if any of this sounds familiar.
There are common and traditional folk remedies for dealing with boredom and owning and living with original art is probably the most potent. A worthy work of art is capable of capturing your attention and awareness each time your eyes wander in its direction. Once that begins to happen you start to notice other stuff, drifting clouds, flowers in fence rows, nuances of thought and feeling. Art defeats boredom – that’s its job.
4 comments:
No argument here. I would very quickly die of boredom without the art of others and of my own books and other writings. My drive to create borders on an obsessive compulsion
David Hunter
Great Post Clay, very true. I would like to repost this on my studio 217 blog with one of your paintings. Pick one and let me know which one and send me a msg on fb and I will reblog and post with your Art.
fairly convinced the world collapses for everyone without art -- there's lots to choose from
I reblogged your post and added the piece you sent me on my blog, Clay, that's a great piece it has so much movement and warm in it, as so much of your work does, all the best Erikakw
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