Great Art comes from a Calm, Sane Center.

Many folks subscribe to the Woody Allen school of thought on Great Art: neurosis is necessary. And I agree: experience and sadness and wounded, open heart is necessary to art that evokes empathy and connects the viewer to the artist’s intent.

But:

“When I walked into the studio where the audition was going on, I saw a raging man. He was rampaging around like a wild animal in captivity. I was petrified.

But it became clear the man was only acting the scene he was given.

When he finished, he sat down and glared at us.”

~ Akira Kurosawa, on Toshiro Mifune.

…great art comes from incredible sanity, and while it can and should explore the deepest darkest reaches of experience, it returns to sanity. Our role is to be of benefit—and, even more fundamentally, to be true and present.

For more: Dharma Art.

“Art is not merely being able to do your music or your painting or your little arrangements or installations of this and that. The kind of art we are talking about is big art. It is having basic goodness in an environment, which in itself is a work of art. It is really worth cheering up tremendously.” ~ Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

 

Bonus:

Ernest Porps on Dharma Art:

Mifune in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXDCOVRrUu4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG-bIljVFLw