I have a notebook that has little sayings about art and such on the bottom of every fifth page or so. It was on sale for $2.99 when I was in Florida and wanting a place to write things down. The page I've just turned to says, "Art should encourage you to ask questions and, even more important, to be happy that you don't know all the answers."
That sounds very wise, doesn't it?
It also sounds completely unsatisfactory to me, as I'm in a not-so-mystical mood.
One thing is true. I don't know all the answers. I don't even know what I want all the answers to be. I do know that I don't want there to be any difficult answers. I want the questions to be as impossible as they want to be and have the answers be perfect enough to grant the desired result and leave no wreckage behind. That's what I want. It doesn't look like a likely thing, however.
Take an example today. I was helping Florette out with some holiday greens. We had some variegated holly that was intended for use in floral arrangements the next day. Some of the holly was gross and blackened, though. A few of the berries were moldy looking.
So what's the question here: how does a person best deal with unacceptable holly and a deadline?
Even for something as simple as this, the answer isn't easy. The answer Florette decided to go with was to rescue as much of the holly as possible. She'd save the unacceptable holly and send it back to them. It seems kind of easy, but it isn't really. The easy answer is that after a phone call they would stop by within a few minutes bringing new holly. The complicated part comes with how to complain and when to do it and if it will be worth the time and will it make a difference and is there any way it could be fixed tomorrow and why should she have to worry about this nonsense anyway?
See? Not an easy answer. Not a difficult question. Although the repercussions of this particular series of questions that I have devised are small, imagine building it up into a big pile with lots of difficult questions like which groceries to buy. Or the Middle East Peace Talks. Even Jimmy Carter has failed to scale that particular mountain of questions.
So. Art should encourage you to ask questions...Okay. But be satisfied, happy, even, with no answers?
I don't think so.
Art should have answers, since there aren't very many in real life. Leave the frustrating enigmas to reality.
Posted by dotty at December 10, 2004 10:59 PM