As an artist I feel compelled to comment that “modern art” is a big generalization that has been done here. Actually “modern art” refers to the period of 60-70 and right now we can refer to the art being made as “contemporary art”. There are many branches in contemporary art, I’m especially passionate about art that connects to society, education and transformation. Some philosophers like Foucault opened the door for this “if a lamp can be a work of art, why can’t life be a work of art?”. But in all fields of art there are confused people even sociopaths. It’s also quite accurate that in the hirearchy of art the most confusing art ends up at the top. But by looking to the sides we can find hope!
As an artist I have to comment also. I love Daniel's videos but this one is cringe because it tries to define art. Daniel is doing art with this video ad that is true. What i find Daniel gets so wrong is defining art for all artist. A lot of contemporary art isn't about looking at the negative or technique. There are different movements and to understand art movements is to understand history, politics, and sociology as well as psychology. It is all about how humans engage with life and that includes contemporary art. Daniel makes a lot of misconceptions here that would take a history lesson on art to explains that i cannot do in a comment. I can see Daniel's expressions of frustrations in talking about contemporary art that seems more personal to him than a true understanding of art. History has so many facets including how we are influenced by our society and some artist respond to that by showing how everything is art, from lines to shapes to rhythms to words so that we wake up to the world around us and not have meaning dictated to us by groups. Each person comes to the art in different ways but it points to how societal construction rather than the work itself. I want to write a book here but I will keep it brief. Daniel's response to contemporary art is a perfect example. He does NOT have to like it and that is the point. But defining art to be a certain way and as gospel is complete bias and not understanding art as movement and dialogue through history.
After watching this video I cannot claim to fully understand what kind of art you mean in particular when you say “contemporary” and “modern” art, but you mention abstract art, art that “says nothing”, and further-art that is nothing more than technique. I can understand how following an idea like “the purpose of art is to instruct and inspire” and exploring your emotions towards it makes for a fun prompt to explore in a video diatribe. My favorite thing about this video is that, as usual, I get the impression that you’re being very earnest and unfiltered. I think that willingness to be exposed is the strongest evidence of your pursuit to cultivate deeper understanding of yourself. This is your UA-cam channel after all: it’s about what you think and feel. Seeing as you’ve left the comment section open (I don’t think I’ve ever observed you turning comments off) I am going to insert my rebuttal :) I have definitely had the reaction you’re having here to art I couldn’t understand, but my personal experience as a lifelong artist and musician who has also pondered over this a great deal is that fairly often (although not always) the art that i couldn’t appreciate to the point of feeling the need to disparage, was simply art that was challenging me-AND it was in fact inspiring me: it was inspiring me to disparage it. Why do we need to put something down? Because it threatens us. Art that communicates nothing usually leaves us with nothing to say back-we shrug and walk away. Another point: absolutely technique may not communicate, inspire, or instruct anything to you but it probably does those things for somebody with a different set of skills and interests. As a classical musician I found it absolutely mind-blowing to hear a live performance of a contemporary work that to someone outside my field would sound like meaningless, frantic finger noodling. Technique can communicate mastery of the body and mind. Having developed a technique that can explore and articulate dissonance with the same nuance as consonance demonstrates discipline. This is me being inspired by your video art-your art of “self”-to put these thoughts together and create my comment art :)
Very well put, Miguel :) I would just argue that one can understand something very well and still loathe it, and that being "inspired to disparage" an artist is not the merit of that artist, but it becomes the merit of the one disparaging (if it is justified, of course). Art that inspires honest praise is what we need 😅
One quote that I liked about art was that *Art is to comfort the disturbed, and to disturb the comfortable .* I tried to get some color into my life towards the end of 2019 and it has helped me. It's therapeutic. But I spend more time watching others create art than I create my own .
I just want to say, that as an artist, your content has helped me to grow so much, not just emotionally but also as a painter. I respect that abstract art isn't for everyone, but I find that painting in this way is so freeing, I can express myself in ways that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do. You are so appreciated from 🇮🇪
I also think that audio-visual art is very powerful tool for processing trauma, but I think it can have a dangerous effect when shared with others. I myself have edited all my traumatic childhood events into a mini-series by using hundreds of different movies, televisions shows and documentaries that have resonated with me over the years. By doing this I have essentially created a new narrative that is all about looking at my trauma and integrating the different parts of my brain. It was a very rewarding experience for me to create this kind of art, even though it was very exhausting at times and I’m glad I have finally finished it. While I’m very proud of my work and sometimes feel the urge to share it with others, I have decided against it. Not only for privacy reasons, but also because I don’t think putting others through the pain that I have endured is particular respectful of their boundaries. It’s an issue that I have with movies, television and the internet in general. Too many people are using the internet and audio-visual art to externalize their internal feelings as an attempt to get rid of their own pain by dumping it on a defenseless audience. Our brains can’t resist images. We don’t think about the images we see in a movie like we do about the words we read in a book. Images go straight into our subconscious mind and we have no means to reject them. In many ways the relationship between the visual artist and the audience looks a lot like an abusive one-sided relationship. The audience has to trust that the artist is taking care of them, but that trust is repeatably broken in almost any modern movie or television show. Is it any wonder that so many dysfunctional people have gravitated towards this medium? Cinema, television and the internet are really strange technologies if you think about it. If a random person would approach us down the street and started talking about his or her deepest psychological issues, we would try to get away from that person as fast as possible. But then we watch award-winning movies and television shows that depict fictional characters being put through all sort of traumatic events. Or we spend time on UA-cam where people regularly share intimate details about their lives with complete strangers. We sometimes experience vicarious trauma by absorbing the images and voices of people we will never meet in real life. It is disturbing how the internet and visual-media has eroded our personal boundaries in this way and I think it has had a negative effect on how we conduct ourselves in real life too.
"Too many people are using the internet and audio-visual art to externalize their internal feelings as an attempt to get rid of their own pain by dumping it on a defenseless audience. " I love this thank you!
Thank you very much for your raw insights. I'm going and about to appear as a guest on a podcast and instead of writing a script to follow by i want to let myself bleed truth. And let it out raw on the mic 🎙️
At 63, (and stepping in to art since design study at Appalachian State in the 70s), I’ve struggled with learning to just appreciate abstracted art. To be current in the art scene it requires almost a reverence for that work. It just won’t settle well with me it seems, and your message helps explain why. My art is almost abstract landscape but easily interpreted as landscapes. Familiar somehow, yet mysterious, and inspirational for many. So thanks!
I feel both instructed, and inspired. Being happy with the healing that has already taken place is good guidance. Please tell us more about the benefits of becoming real.
Daniel I think you may be generalising too much about abstract art and might want to reconsider. I’m a painter who has sometimes worked in abstract images. Painting is a non-verbal form of expression and capturing the ineffable is important to many artists (including myself). I have found that abstract images can sometimes dig down into feelings and images which are rooted in the unconscious and bring them into the light. If we’re talking about painting and literature, the reason abstraction came to be important was that representative art, or “realism”, was limiting for some people who needed a different mode of expression. I mostly agree that art should be instructive and inspiring, but don’t forget that it is important for it to be expressive.
I agree with you a lot here and i think maybe there is something Daniel is missing about what some of the art he is talking about was trying to do. Abstract art and its history are super interesting, why those artists decided to make art that way. It isn't meaningless at all. It was their attempt to find meaning somewhere different.
Lovely, essentially art is the self. I often time think of me doing my own self-work as analogous to the work done by ancient chisel and hammer artists. With my unprocessed emotions and traumas I am a flat rectangular slab. But, as I heal I become more defined, and my true features finally get to greet day. Thank you, Daniel!
I still think you're a great film maker Daniel and would love you to make another film around mental health and society in general and how society in manyways creates false ideas of normal or what is healthy.I still think there is so much more to debate and inspire people to really think about what makes us mentally healthy and how the mental healthy system rarely manages to restore "health".I think your films on Schizophrenia and Open dialogue are still some of the best mental health films I've seen. Please Daniel if you have the means consider making another film ? I think you also write great little songs as well...
I feel so encouraged by your videos! Thank you so much for being an inspiration, Daniel. I wouldn't continue on this path without role models like you, because people in general don't know about real healing or don't want to know. 💜💜
I don't believe hope and wakefulness are compatible. Hope is the apex of denial and dissociation. Hope is passive. Hope is a sedative people use to avoid taking responsibility for their own agency. Inspiration is something entirely different. Inspiration is a call to engage and love and wake up. Inspiration is action, life, learning, contribution. People who rely on hope quickly give up when the results they want don't materialize in their lifetimes. You provide inspiration w your words and videos. You inspire me. As for art i would never presume that art is intended for its audiences. I think most art is just human beings trying to understand themselves. Much art is created by people so young they hardly know their own thoughts. What can they teach? Great prose is absolutely saddled with the mission of educating and inspiring. The other arts? I'm not so sure. Conflating the marketplace w art is a problem. Artists aren't typically operating from money economies. Most artists naturally go toward gift economies. That money people make an industry of it is not really coming from the artists themselves. Lewis Hyde wrote a book titled "the Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World" it has some truly marvelous insights into the human activities of art and commerce. I learned a lot.
Daniel great videos! Have you done one about speaking out against problems with the mental health field and how people respond, particularly people in the field, and how you deal with that or how anyone who has had a bad experience could talk about it and get people to listen? If you've already done this and I've missed it could you direct me to it?
At the beginning, it bothered me that you didn't give examples. If direct about what's bad, be direct, eg What are the greats art idols that don't deserve the worship they are given? Do they include Becket and Pinter, Dali, do they include famous jazz, or Philip Glass, do they include Henry Miller or Hemingway, movies of Spielberg or Tarkovsky, where or when was the line crossed. Then, negative role models: ah, I have learned so much from them. Near the end of the video,: more abstract talk. Difficult to relate to.
I agree with this! Let's take some specific examples and analyze them! There is much meaning to be found. The more you look into what an artist is trying to do with their art the more the art reveals itself and inspires. I love becket, tarkovsky, jazz, glass, surrealism. You have great taste!
fascinating video, and you raise some great points -- but i disagree with your main point, and with the idea of discrediting specific genres or specific artworks. i'll attempt to explain my view. in my experience, art is not intrinsically about a purpose or a function (regardless of whether it can be argued to have these), but could be described more closely as a means of channeling (or communicating, or sharing) our individual (and collective) creativity through the form of self expression, even when expressing ourselves means expressing our brokenness. personally, i believe that it's invaluable to do so as part of the human experience, and that creativity is central to existence and to life. to better explain: for me, listening to music and creating music have the same effect, and that is to describe (or prescribe) certain emotional states, mental states, or philosophies. sometimes to convey them to others, but more importantly to convey them to myself, and for myself. perhaps you could call this a purpose, but i believe music, like all art, manifests a different way for everyone and has a different function depending on who you are (and when you are that person), and so has no single unifying purpose other than to be more ourselves. if you got this far, thanks for reading, and hope you are well.
I would agree, I was recommended to go to MOMA a month ago in NY. As someone who draws very well, I was so disappointed and disturbed with the art there. A lot of it was overpriced crap with no meaning to it. I think a lot of people who are so disconnected from themselves and reality would think such art is talent but I could disagree. As someone who has a natural talent to draw, these things really come from the heart and don't need to be forced. Much of this art is seeking meaning in a world so convoluted from the actual truth like you say.
You shouldn't judge art by the art market which is essentially a money laundering scheme for the ultra wealthy. I'm going to challenge you here a bit on this. I don't think you understand what those artists were trying to do or the context they were working in. I think if you learned a little more about art history and what the art is trying to do you might actually appreciate it a lot. As someone who's studied art history for my entire adult life this sounds to me like someone talking about and judging something they don't actually know very much about or haven't spent much time looking into. With that being said i appreciate your opinion and i see your point and i certainly agree with a lot of it. And hasn't what you see as meaningless in art challenged you and inspired you to rally against it? To rally for the cause of meaning and change. In that sense hasn't that art instructed you and challenged you? I appreciate your work immensely Daniel, it has challenged and inspired me. Respect and peace and thanks to you. And yes a lot of art just isn't that interesting or is derivative or made to make a buck, a lot of it just sucks, just like in any other field, but there are innumerable gems if you spend time looking. Also we all have different tastes, which is great and good, would be boring if we all like the same stuff.
I feel that abstract art is like a Rorschach test. The viewer is going to interpret it for themselves. The art should arouse curiosity and emotion. A person standing right next to you, looking at the same thing, might take it to be full of optimism and encouraging! :)
It’s interesting to think about what skilled artists could be using these videos and working out their own stuff who will become prominent artists with a message of actual hope.
I love abstract art! It's gift of being able to see "reality" from many different perspectives and share this vision with others. It's the gift of challenging people and taking them outside of themselves. I am an artist! I love art. And, it doesn't have to look pretty or fit any person or groups aesthetic measure! It can be pleasing to the artist and that's enough! The genius modern artists were all misunderstood until they became famous and accepted. They were rejected and then hailed. Kinda like Jesus Christ! He was crucified as an evil propagator of lies and rose again as the Lord of all! Funny how that works. I am artist!
I find it extremely difficult to find anyone who is generally looking to grow in truth and honesty real honesty and is compassionate to others. Everyone is self serving all searching for self gratification disrespectful to the elderly. I am an old man now I have watched the morals of the people steadily declining all around me the hatred and contempt for being a different race and I don’t see things changing for the better for us. Truth honor dignity honesty empathy compassion respect for our elders I just don’t see people displaying these character traits today. I do have hope that love and kindness for others will return to us all.
I remember the history of a man named himself "Habacuc" from Costa Rica and his "masterpiece" was chaining a dog a let him die from starvation. That situation pissed me off a lot and it really broke my heart. For me that's not art that's just being a shitty human. That was in 2007. Thanks Daniel for a new video.♥
Same as the enslament of other organisms, breeding them for looks even if it means they are slowly suffocating or suffer from hip dysplasia,,or other tortures, puppy mills, etc. Humanity needs a check in.
For me art can tap into what thoughts can not. And a part of healing. The shelter. Maybe it can also help someone else. So I share: INSOMNIA OF THE LIONHEART Lies we sell ourselves at dawns wake us up at night like horns. Lies-fuel keeps us on the sprint grow a circuits, our mind's print. Circuits keep us within those nets fiery rings that band our chests turn an inhale to a heavy lift seesaw, shallow, very swift. Time keeps dropping Life in vain Sounds of Truth-drip became insane. Buzzes grow impossible to ignore like 10 cave men next 2U snore. The lioness gave birth in a secret tent dots&boxes no longer making sense. Is that why you can't sleep? 'Couse of the Lionheart? Remember... you're all Lionhearts❤
Hi Daniel, can you talk about Avoidant personality disorder? I just got diagnosed with it and would like to hear your perspective on it, thanks in advance.
Daniel, love this video. not to be a total nerd, but what do you think about Jung's thoughts on artistic expression in his essay "Psychoanalysis and Fiction"? I consider myself an artist, and that essay has haunted me since I read it. Its thesis is that artists are destined to be egotistical and infantile in their lives but achieve something more mature and deeply true in their work. In his framing, the work essentially consumes the life of the artist, and artists' lives are often "unsatisfactory" for this reason (paraphrasing here). He has great reverence for the works of art that he discusses in the essay, but also an acknowledgement of their tragic cost. Is this just Jung's projection? Would love to here your thoughts on this, bc sometimes I think about that essay and I want to stop writing fiction because I am worried that what I am doing is self-centered.
I think you generalize art too much in this video, but I understand your deeper point and don't feel that its too distracting to understand. Art is mostly about how (in my view) one feels after expressing themselves, like you making a video and the feelings within, and how a painter or filmmaker or whatever feels when they are finished their pieces. The all-encompassing emotional journey is the artform. One that I think you master in your unique way! One that, also, the uninitiated may have the same reactions you do to other forms of art that you may not be in the right headspace to truly appreciate :) That said, there's a lot of really horrendous art out there haha
Mr Mackler, as much as I love your all work and videos, I feel hurt by this one. You are deprecionating whole generations of artist in one short lecture. I agree with you on the 'con artists' who are pretending to be the real artists... just relying on exhibitionism and over-sexualized drama art. However, I strongly disagree with you completely rejecting the purpose of art. Maybe you are not born very sensitive to art and don't feel it, but for many of us, art has been the only reassurance - and there are times we need only this 'hug' that is impossible to obtain from reality, to SURVIVE. Your degradation of art and saying that on contrary you do real art is a bit grandiose by the way. And last by last, I create the abstract art which is, for me, the most subtle, manifestation of my feelings. This process helps me to achieve peace of mind and happiness. Why your you find it bullshit? Because you are God and only your journaling is real?
The purpose of art is to produce equity, reinforce human rights and social justice and effect deconstructive renaturalization. If it fails to do these things (all of them) it is not art but marketing and narcissism. Neither marketing nor narcissism have ever served the values at the heart of the human relationship to environment, to others, to one's own self-actualization/service to others, and finally to one's own true self (again, always revealed through service to others). As such most of what is considered art is not art but the distorted self-images of very sick individuals, which speaks to, once again, the values or lack thereof of society: "It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a very sick society." -J.Krishnamurti
Daniel, your channel is a hidden gem!
As an artist I feel compelled to comment that “modern art” is a big generalization that has been done here. Actually “modern art” refers to the period of 60-70 and right now we can refer to the art being made as “contemporary art”. There are many branches in contemporary art, I’m especially passionate about art that connects to society, education and transformation. Some philosophers like Foucault opened the door for this “if a lamp can be a work of art, why can’t life be a work of art?”. But in all fields of art there are confused people even sociopaths. It’s also quite accurate that in the hirearchy of art the most confusing art ends up at the top. But by looking to the sides we can find hope!
I saw a contemporary art collection in Bisbee, Arizona at the Artemezia Museum that frankly sparked life in me.
As an artist I have to comment also. I love Daniel's videos but this one is cringe because it tries to define art. Daniel is doing art with this video ad that is true. What i find Daniel gets so wrong is defining art for all artist. A lot of contemporary art isn't about looking at the negative or technique. There are different movements and to understand art movements is to understand history, politics, and sociology as well as psychology. It is all about how humans engage with life and that includes contemporary art. Daniel makes a lot of misconceptions here that would take a history lesson on art to explains that i cannot do in a comment. I can see Daniel's expressions of frustrations in talking about contemporary art that seems more personal to him than a true understanding of art. History has so many facets including how we are influenced by our society and some artist respond to that by showing how everything is art, from lines to shapes to rhythms to words so that we wake up to the world around us and not have meaning dictated to us by groups. Each person comes to the art in different ways but it points to how societal construction rather than the work itself. I want to write a book here but I will keep it brief. Daniel's response to contemporary art is a perfect example. He does NOT have to like it and that is the point. But defining art to be a certain way and as gospel is complete bias and not understanding art as movement and dialogue through history.
@@muneshsobha8045 this exactly.
yes i assume he's referring to Contemporary Art
After watching this video I cannot claim to fully understand what kind of art you mean in particular when you say “contemporary” and “modern” art, but you mention abstract art, art that “says nothing”, and further-art that is nothing more than technique. I can understand how following an idea like “the purpose of art is to instruct and inspire” and exploring your emotions towards it makes for a fun prompt to explore in a video diatribe. My favorite thing about this video is that, as usual, I get the impression that you’re being very earnest and unfiltered. I think that willingness to be exposed is the strongest evidence of your pursuit to cultivate deeper understanding of yourself. This is your UA-cam channel after all: it’s about what you think and feel.
Seeing as you’ve left the comment section open (I don’t think I’ve ever observed you turning comments off) I am going to insert my rebuttal :)
I have definitely had the reaction you’re having here to art I couldn’t understand, but my personal experience as a lifelong artist and musician who has also pondered over this a great deal is that fairly often (although not always) the art that i couldn’t appreciate to the point of feeling the need to disparage, was simply art that was challenging me-AND it was in fact inspiring me: it was inspiring me to disparage it. Why do we need to put something down? Because it threatens us. Art that communicates nothing usually leaves us with nothing to say back-we shrug and walk away.
Another point: absolutely technique may not communicate, inspire, or instruct anything to you but it probably does those things for somebody with a different set of skills and interests. As a classical musician I found it absolutely mind-blowing to hear a live performance of a contemporary work that to someone outside my field would sound like meaningless, frantic finger noodling. Technique can communicate mastery of the body and mind. Having developed a technique that can explore and articulate dissonance with the same nuance as consonance demonstrates discipline.
This is me being inspired by your video art-your art of “self”-to put these thoughts together and create my comment art :)
Friend !I totally agree !!!😊
This is exactly what I was going to say in response to his claims. Excellent comment 😊
Very well put, Miguel :)
I would just argue that one can understand something very well and still loathe it, and that being "inspired to disparage" an artist is not the merit of that artist, but it becomes the merit of the one disparaging (if it is justified, of course). Art that inspires honest praise is what we need 😅
One quote that I liked about art was that *Art is to comfort the disturbed, and to disturb the comfortable .* I tried to get some color into my life towards the end of 2019 and it has helped me. It's therapeutic. But I spend more time watching others create art than I create my own .
I just want to say, that as an artist, your content has helped me to grow so much, not just emotionally but also as a painter. I respect that abstract art isn't for everyone, but I find that painting in this way is so freeing, I can express myself in ways that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do.
You are so appreciated from 🇮🇪
that's why I Love Art and make Art
because I want to educate and entertain 🙏🌹
“Art creates reality”
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this. ❤
Daniel Mackler thank you as an artist I find your critique of Art both informative and helpful!
You are seeing this wrong, art is an exploration in the same way scientific research is an exploration.
I also think that audio-visual art is very powerful tool for processing trauma, but I think it can have a dangerous effect when shared with others. I myself have edited all my traumatic childhood events into a mini-series by using hundreds of different movies, televisions shows and documentaries that have resonated with me over the years. By doing this I have essentially created a new narrative that is all about looking at my trauma and integrating the different parts of my brain. It was a very rewarding experience for me to create this kind of art, even though it was very exhausting at times and I’m glad I have finally finished it.
While I’m very proud of my work and sometimes feel the urge to share it with others, I have decided against it. Not only for privacy reasons, but also because I don’t think putting others through the pain that I have endured is particular respectful of their boundaries. It’s an issue that I have with movies, television and the internet in general.
Too many people are using the internet and audio-visual art to externalize their internal feelings as an attempt to get rid of their own pain by dumping it on a defenseless audience. Our brains can’t resist images. We don’t think about the images we see in a movie like we do about the words we read in a book. Images go straight into our subconscious mind and we have no means to reject them. In many ways the relationship between the visual artist and the audience looks a lot like an abusive one-sided relationship. The audience has to trust that the artist is taking care of them, but that trust is repeatably broken in almost any modern movie or television show. Is it any wonder that so many dysfunctional people have gravitated towards this medium?
Cinema, television and the internet are really strange technologies if you think about it. If a random person would approach us down the street and started talking about his or her deepest psychological issues, we would try to get away from that person as fast as possible. But then we watch award-winning movies and television shows that depict fictional characters being put through all sort of traumatic events. Or we spend time on UA-cam where people regularly share intimate details about their lives with complete strangers. We sometimes experience vicarious trauma by absorbing the images and voices of people we will never meet in real life. It is disturbing how the internet and visual-media has eroded our personal boundaries in this way and I think it has had a negative effect on how we conduct ourselves in real life too.
"Too many people are using the internet and audio-visual art to externalize their internal feelings as an attempt to get rid of their own pain by dumping it on a defenseless audience. " I love this thank you!
Interesting and insightful analysis! Thank you for sharing this food for thought.
You ever read Jerry Mander or Neil Postman?
Thank you very much for your raw insights. I'm going and about to appear as a guest on a podcast and instead of writing a script to follow by i want to let myself bleed truth. And let it out raw on the mic 🎙️
I love your videos Daniel. Thank you
At 63, (and stepping in to art since design study at Appalachian State in the 70s), I’ve struggled with learning to just appreciate abstracted art. To be current in the art scene it requires almost a reverence for that work. It just won’t settle well with me it seems, and your message helps explain why. My art is almost abstract landscape but easily interpreted as landscapes. Familiar somehow, yet mysterious, and inspirational for many. So thanks!
Thanks Daniel! Your video messages are inspiring and exceptional!! ☮️
I feel both instructed, and inspired. Being happy with the healing that has already taken place is good guidance. Please tell us more about the benefits of becoming real.
Brilliant
Only channel that excites me when it uploads these days never leave UA-cam please
Daniel I think you may be generalising too much about abstract art and might want to reconsider. I’m a painter who has sometimes worked in abstract images. Painting is a non-verbal form of expression and capturing the ineffable is important to many artists (including myself). I have found that abstract images can sometimes dig down into feelings and images which are rooted in the unconscious and bring them into the light.
If we’re talking about painting and literature, the reason abstraction came to be important was that representative art, or “realism”, was limiting for some people who needed a different mode of expression.
I mostly agree that art should be instructive and inspiring, but don’t forget that it is important for it to be expressive.
I agree with you a lot here and i think maybe there is something Daniel is missing about what some of the art he is talking about was trying to do. Abstract art and its history are super interesting, why those artists decided to make art that way. It isn't meaningless at all. It was their attempt to find meaning somewhere different.
Lovely, essentially art is the self.
I often time think of me doing my own self-work as analogous to the work done by ancient chisel and hammer artists. With my unprocessed emotions and traumas I am a flat rectangular slab. But, as I heal I become more defined, and my true features finally get to greet day. Thank you, Daniel!
I still think you're a great film maker Daniel and would love you to make another film around mental health and society in general and how society in manyways creates false ideas of normal or what is healthy.I still think there is so much more to debate and inspire people to really think about what makes us mentally healthy and how the mental healthy system rarely manages to restore "health".I think your films on Schizophrenia and Open dialogue are still some of the best mental health films I've seen.
Please Daniel if you have the means consider making another film ?
I think you also write great little songs as well...
! Yes!! This would be so wonderful and important. I hope Daniel would do this, he would be the perfect person to do this.
All Art, even the Art of Living, is in the eye of the beholder. Best wishes to you on your continuing journey.
I feel so encouraged by your videos! Thank you so much for being an inspiration, Daniel. I wouldn't continue on this path without role models like you, because people in general don't know about real healing or don't want to know. 💜💜
I don't believe hope and wakefulness are compatible. Hope is the apex of denial and dissociation. Hope is passive. Hope is a sedative people use to avoid taking responsibility for their own agency. Inspiration is something entirely different. Inspiration is a call to engage and love and wake up. Inspiration is action, life, learning, contribution. People who rely on hope quickly give up when the results they want don't materialize in their lifetimes. You provide inspiration w your words and videos. You inspire me.
As for art i would never presume that art is intended for its audiences. I think most art is just human beings trying to understand themselves. Much art is created by people so young they hardly know their own thoughts. What can they teach? Great prose is absolutely saddled with the mission of educating and inspiring. The other arts? I'm not so sure.
Conflating the marketplace w art is a problem. Artists aren't typically operating from money economies. Most artists naturally go toward gift economies. That money people make an industry of it is not really coming from the artists themselves.
Lewis Hyde wrote a book titled "the Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World" it has some truly marvelous insights into the human activities of art and commerce. I learned a lot.
Awesome!
You are wonderful ART my favorite LIFEart truth heart inspirations
"Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable." - Cesar A. Cruz
I 💗you Daniel!! ☺️
Hi Daniel can you make a video on your opinion about art therapies:
- Art therapy
- Music therapy
- Drama therapy
- Dance therapy
Josephine Wall is a great painter look her up.
Daniel great videos! Have you done one about speaking out against problems with the mental health field and how people respond, particularly people in the field, and how you deal with that or how anyone who has had a bad experience could talk about it and get people to listen? If you've already done this and I've missed it could you direct me to it?
Good art transcends the human experience and shows us a glimpse of the divine nature within ourselves.
@three thrushes- beautifully said, yes! My sentiments exactly :)
At the beginning, it bothered me that you didn't give examples. If direct about what's bad, be direct, eg What are the greats art idols that don't deserve the worship they are given? Do they include Becket and Pinter, Dali, do they include famous jazz, or Philip Glass, do they include Henry Miller or Hemingway, movies of Spielberg or Tarkovsky, where or when was the line crossed.
Then, negative role models: ah, I have learned so much from them.
Near the end of the video,: more abstract talk. Difficult to relate to.
I agree with this! Let's take some specific examples and analyze them! There is much meaning to be found. The more you look into what an artist is trying to do with their art the more the art reveals itself and inspires. I love becket, tarkovsky, jazz, glass, surrealism. You have great taste!
fascinating video, and you raise some great points -- but i disagree with your main point, and with the idea of discrediting specific genres or specific artworks. i'll attempt to explain my view.
in my experience, art is not intrinsically about a purpose or a function (regardless of whether it can be argued to have these), but could be described more closely as a means of channeling (or communicating, or sharing) our individual (and collective) creativity through the form of self expression, even when expressing ourselves means expressing our brokenness. personally, i believe that it's invaluable to do so as part of the human experience, and that creativity is central to existence and to life.
to better explain: for me, listening to music and creating music have the same effect, and that is to describe (or prescribe) certain emotional states, mental states, or philosophies. sometimes to convey them to others, but more importantly to convey them to myself, and for myself. perhaps you could call this a purpose, but i believe music, like all art, manifests a different way for everyone and has a different function depending on who you are (and when you are that person), and so has no single unifying purpose other than to be more ourselves.
if you got this far, thanks for reading, and hope you are well.
Thanks for sharing this. You make good points. I read it all!!
@@dmackler58 you're welcome, and i appreciate you taking the time to read my perspective!
@@WiresDawson Yes! And I'm still thinking about your points.
I would agree, I was recommended to go to MOMA a month ago in NY. As someone who draws very well, I was so disappointed and disturbed with the art there. A lot of it was overpriced crap with no meaning to it. I think a lot of people who are so disconnected from themselves and reality would think such art is talent but I could disagree. As someone who has a natural talent to draw, these things really come from the heart and don't need to be forced. Much of this art is seeking meaning in a world so convoluted from the actual truth like you say.
beautiful
It's for pleasure and to persuade a particular view.
as one person once said, every form of art isolates us from humanity
You shouldn't judge art by the art market which is essentially a money laundering scheme for the ultra wealthy. I'm going to challenge you here a bit on this. I don't think you understand what those artists were trying to do or the context they were working in. I think if you learned a little more about art history and what the art is trying to do you might actually appreciate it a lot. As someone who's studied art history for my entire adult life this sounds to me like someone talking about and judging something they don't actually know very much about or haven't spent much time looking into. With that being said i appreciate your opinion and i see your point and i certainly agree with a lot of it. And hasn't what you see as meaningless in art challenged you and inspired you to rally against it? To rally for the cause of meaning and change. In that sense hasn't that art instructed you and challenged you? I appreciate your work immensely Daniel, it has challenged and inspired me. Respect and peace and thanks to you. And yes a lot of art just isn't that interesting or is derivative or made to make a buck, a lot of it just sucks, just like in any other field, but there are innumerable gems if you spend time looking. Also we all have different tastes, which is great and good, would be boring if we all like the same stuff.
Art has no singular purpose, whether it appeases your sensibilites is irrelevant.
I feel that abstract art is like a Rorschach test. The viewer is going to interpret it for themselves. The art should arouse curiosity and emotion. A person standing right next to you, looking at the same thing, might take it to be full of optimism and encouraging! :)
Nicely said!
excellent as usual....
It’s interesting to think about what skilled artists could be using these videos and working out their own stuff who will become prominent artists with a message of actual hope.
Sorry for the self-advertising, I've actually woven a lot of what I've learned from Daniel's videos into my comic "Problem Child".
Facts
I love abstract art! It's gift of being able to see "reality" from many different perspectives and share this vision with others. It's the gift of challenging people and taking them outside of themselves. I am an artist! I love art. And, it doesn't have to look pretty or fit any person or groups aesthetic measure! It can be pleasing to the artist and that's enough! The genius modern artists were all misunderstood until they became famous and accepted. They were rejected and then hailed. Kinda like Jesus Christ! He was crucified as an evil propagator of lies and rose again as the Lord of all! Funny how that works. I am artist!
I find it extremely difficult to find anyone who is generally looking to grow in truth and honesty real honesty and is compassionate to others. Everyone is self serving all searching for self gratification disrespectful to the elderly. I am an old man now I have watched the morals of the people steadily declining all around me the hatred and contempt for being a different race and I don’t see things changing for the better for us. Truth honor dignity honesty empathy compassion respect for our elders I just don’t see people displaying these character traits today. I do have hope that love and kindness for others will return to us all.
I remember the history of a man named himself "Habacuc" from Costa Rica and his "masterpiece" was chaining a dog a let him die from starvation. That situation pissed me off a lot and it really broke my heart. For me that's not art that's just being a shitty human. That was in 2007. Thanks Daniel for a new video.♥
Same as the enslament of other organisms, breeding them for looks even if it means they are slowly suffocating or suffer from hip dysplasia,,or other tortures, puppy mills, etc. Humanity needs a check in.
Yeah see my other comment.
Modern art is a celebration of the depraved.
truth is art, preach it Daniel
For me art can tap into what thoughts can not.
And a part of healing.
The shelter.
Maybe it can also help someone else.
So I share:
INSOMNIA OF THE LIONHEART
Lies we sell ourselves at dawns
wake us up at night like horns.
Lies-fuel keeps us on the sprint
grow a circuits, our mind's print.
Circuits keep us within those nets
fiery rings that band our chests
turn an inhale to a heavy lift
seesaw, shallow, very swift.
Time keeps dropping Life in vain
Sounds of Truth-drip became insane.
Buzzes grow impossible to ignore
like 10 cave men next 2U snore.
The lioness gave birth in a secret tent
dots&boxes no longer making sense.
Is that why you can't sleep?
'Couse of the Lionheart?
Remember... you're all Lionhearts❤
Hi Daniel, can you talk about Avoidant personality disorder? I just got diagnosed with it and would like to hear your perspective on it, thanks in advance.
Can you do a video on have to create relationships?
Daniel, love this video. not to be a total nerd, but what do you think about Jung's thoughts on artistic expression in his essay "Psychoanalysis and Fiction"? I consider myself an artist, and that essay has haunted me since I read it. Its thesis is that artists are destined to be egotistical and infantile in their lives but achieve something more mature and deeply true in their work. In his framing, the work essentially consumes the life of the artist, and artists' lives are often "unsatisfactory" for this reason (paraphrasing here). He has great reverence for the works of art that he discusses in the essay, but also an acknowledgement of their tragic cost. Is this just Jung's projection? Would love to here your thoughts on this, bc sometimes I think about that essay and I want to stop writing fiction because I am worried that what I am doing is self-centered.
Loved this! You should also do a video on Jim Carey he’s a very intelligent man he’s been woken
I think you generalize art too much in this video, but I understand your deeper point and don't feel that its too distracting to understand. Art is mostly about how (in my view) one feels after expressing themselves, like you making a video and the feelings within, and how a painter or filmmaker or whatever feels when they are finished their pieces. The all-encompassing emotional journey is the artform. One that I think you master in your unique way! One that, also, the uninitiated may have the same reactions you do to other forms of art that you may not be in the right headspace to truly appreciate :) That said, there's a lot of really horrendous art out there haha
nothing wrong with conceptual art
art school is quite a couldren....another time for chat......
Heat
Hitler felt the same, haha.
i think you mean "contemporary art"
For some artists art is a way for them to process their own trauma.
Mr Mackler, as much as I love your all work and videos, I feel hurt by this one. You are deprecionating whole generations of artist in one short lecture. I agree with you on the 'con artists' who are pretending to be the real artists... just relying on exhibitionism and over-sexualized drama art. However, I strongly disagree with you completely rejecting the purpose of art. Maybe you are not born very sensitive to art and don't feel it, but for many of us, art has been the only reassurance - and there are times we need only this 'hug' that is impossible to obtain from reality, to SURVIVE. Your degradation of art and saying that on contrary you do real art is a bit grandiose by the way. And last by last, I create the abstract art which is, for me, the most subtle, manifestation of my feelings. This process helps me to achieve peace of mind and happiness. Why your you find it bullshit? Because you are God and only your journaling is real?
Contemporary artists defending themselves here...
You're talking about unattractive art. Nice art is good for your mental health.... your favourite place, flowers etc done in colours you love.
I didn't see a picture of the art that you objected to so much, or any art that you think is acceptable.
Who made you the arbiter of what art is?
The purpose of art is to produce equity, reinforce human rights and social justice and effect deconstructive renaturalization. If it fails to do these things (all of them) it is not art but marketing and narcissism. Neither marketing nor narcissism have ever served the values at the heart of the human relationship to environment, to others, to one's own self-actualization/service to others, and finally to one's own true self (again, always revealed through service to others). As such most of what is considered art is not art but the distorted self-images of very sick individuals, which speaks to, once again, the values or lack thereof of society:
"It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a very sick society."
-J.Krishnamurti