Art is the history of expression. The libraries memory that humanity has built through literature, religion, and history are all filled with expressions of life. How did the imaginations of Dante and Shakespeare inspire painters and sculptors? What lessons did religious wars and civil revolutions leave for art? The master poured his heart and soul into his work, giving us an interesting and important key.↵
Art transcends time and space. It shows us the lives, routines, and concerns of people who lived in other times and other places, and the values their souls sought. Like a magical carpet, it travels across dimensions of time and space, unfolding scenes from history far and near. What would our world be like without artists who have recorded and testified to great inventions and adventures of the seas, who have traversed philosophy, theology, literature, history and thought, who have gone to heaven and hell (and back), leaving all their records in the traces of their brushes chisels? Wouldn't it be stuffy and boring, like a room without windows?↵
Drawing is different from photography. A painter creates a work of art by filling in the blanks They start with a single line and gradually fill the canvas. They think hundreds or thousands of times before choosing the first color and adding another. Countless possibilities come and go, and they draw and erase the picture in their minds thinking about color play and coordination, balance and harmoney. The tireless effort of a painter holding a brush and staring at a canvas to pick just the right line and just the right hue is comparable to the painful practice of a musician to hit a beautiful note. The pain of creation is the same for sculptors and architects.↵
Artists walk the path of art, compromising or confronting the demands of their times and history. Sometimes they have to cater to the tastes of fickle patrons, or are forced to take a religious stand. Other times, art was used to make a point for those in power or to show off the wealth and erudition of the aristocracy. Court portraitists were often asked to paint portraits of monarchs and their families, not to paint them as they were, but to beautify their faces. Despite these outlandish demands and constraints, artists expand their range of expression and lay the groundwork for imagination and creativity. lt's important to remember that behind every inspiring masterpiece is the sweat, toil, and tireless work of its creator.