Florent Farges is a French artist who often discusses philosophical issues related to art. This is one of his best (and one of the best explanations I've ever seen).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffoR6DuwTTo
Excerpt:
meaning is really in the process even if it leads to failure because ultimately failure gives something interesting so can we finally respond, is art meaningless?
maybe.
let's just say that art is one of the least meaningless things that we can create in this world because ultimately
creating is meaning
Transcript:
this is me after an entire day of work
at this stage i was approximately six and this is me 10 minutes later erasing all of it because i realized that the figure was too big and i simply didn't what a waste of time it's in moments like this that you really need to hang on to your inspiration and remember why you are doing this in the first place if you want to avoid discouragement you not only lose time and energy but the sense of meaning to keep going what happens when you ask yourself if it was all worth it but you can't find an answer and this is what happened to a viewer named john who wrote to me about that asking for insight here's what he i honestly do not know entirely what i'll be writing but my main concern with my art journey is to find meaning i started my first painting around one year ago after watching a video of someone painting the first thing that inspired me to start was realizing i and show what i'm feeling to others with a sense of dynamism and craftsmanship i do not paint regularly in fear of wasting my supplies time and devotion for a piece just for me to throw it away in the beginning i feel excited and inspired but in the end the excitement and motivation are gone because i realized that the painting can be much better and that the effort and work required have been worth nothing because the quality of the piece is not nearly equivalent to the amount of time and emotional drainage i'm slowly losing i'm losing inspiration and admiration for what i have loved doing your concern with meaning raises a question that's pretty hard to answer have you not found meaning in art yet is there no meaning to find in there in the first place i think that you have put your finger right where it hurts on the absurdity of human existence is meaning something you have to look for or something you have to create and obviously the big question let's put this question on hold for a moment and go back to your creative struggles because that's where it all you spend a lot of time and effort creating something but it ends up being while a failure right what a waste of time just like the example that i showed the first thing that you have to keep in mind is that this waste of time is part of the creative process imagine however weird it might sound that artistic creation is like moving a and if you know anything about mechanics and physics only 15 to 25 is actually used to move the car and the dissipated in heat friction and multiple various losses of energy so is just like the time you waste in your and now if we want to stay in this stupid engine analogy you also have to take into account that you're still in the prototype phase so you're still so it might happen that 99 that you spend will end up being wasted but what a glorious waste because this 1 successful time spent creating art might change your life and change someone else's life forever and that's worth it that's the thing though this wasted time meaningful in itself even though it's it's hard to comprehend why time wasted on learning new skills even if 99 of it ends up being a failure is more valuable than time wasted doing nothing all of our clocks are only counting down and we're all wasting time no matter what we do if you do nothing you're wasting your time if you do something and fail you're wasting your time and if you do well you're still wasting your time it's just that maybe doing something can make this waste of time a little bit what makes a certain waste of time more valuable than another what makes it worth the time and effort accepting to give up on something important in order to accomplish something else that's regarded as more it might be sacrificing comfort sacrificing energy money or time about sacrificing one's certainties or revolting against something or simply the meaninglessness of our existence and something doesn't need to have meaning is the very best illustration of this music for a moment the first movement for example of the the moonlight sonata and listen to it for a moment it's not trying to achieve anything but it probably touched the hearts of a meaningless succession of notes meant to be played in a specific way nothing could be closer to a pure celebration of the meaninglessness of logically speaking but it speaks to our now just try to think about the number of wrong notes that beethoven had to hit before creating this piece as it is he probably had to hit the wrong keys like 75 of the time maybe more thousands of series of notes that were just played in vain like this just vanishing into thin air with not even an echo that we can hear today just so that this sonata could exist beethoven had decided to give up after so much wasted time so much that would be the perfectly sane thing risk the disappointment right meaningless as it is this world would be a lot poorer if the moonlight saneter didn't exist this world would be somehow missing something and we wouldn't even have a clue of what it is is super valuable for people who feel nostalgic melancholic or sad it what people can't possibly explain with words that's what matters and and that's what you need to remember when you feel that you're losing you started this because you knew art can help you express yourself and show the world what you're feeling your struggle is just this 75 percent energy loss and the 25 percent remaining your reason for starting this engine in the first place expressing emotions sharing your vision with the world if it's meaningless maybe at least it's it's worth sacrificing 75 or more of your time and energy to get one painting done probably now if you remember i suggested to keep this question for the end is meaning something that you have to find in the world or something that you and to me in my opinion the response is that meaning is only something in your head really it's just something that there is no meaning out there in the the world is devoid of any trace of meaning it doesn't care about you it doesn't care about your art but but you care you care and that's you're willing to sacrifice your comfort to create and people will care at some point when they see the art that if it's genuine and maybe not everyone will care but even if it if it can just resonate with a single person then it's definitely worth it i am personally grateful that beethoven was foolish enough to sacrifice his sanity to create this amazing music that helps me understand my own melancholy not that of beethoven's my own speaks to and i couldn't imagine a world without that's where meaning comes from from sharing expressing and living art the end result if it's a disappointment it's not really that important in the process even if it leads to failure because ultimately failure gives something interesting so can we finally respond is art let's just say that art is one of the least meaningless things that we can create in this world because
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