Why Art Matters

The first author, Sarah Cunningham, grabbed my attention when they used the phrase “celebrating the human condition” (p 3) as a purpose for creating artwork. This stood out to me because when I was in my photography class last year, I centered my final project around catching breadcrumbs from people’s lives. I had come up with a term for this specific idea: Capturing the Residue of Human Existence. As I continued to read the article, I had this idea in my mind of art being the act of savoring one's exitance or the lives we live. Once I got to page 9 of the article another author, Katarzyna Marciniak, started expanding on this idea more. They described photography as “a microscopic click of time – can move you and stay with you like a haunting” (p 9). This idea of capturing a moment that will literally never exist again is monumental. Then when you combine that with capturing human existence you get not only the idea behind creating art but the idea behind our existence as a whole. People are storytellers and they can’t help it. I mean if you look back to cave drawings that they hoped someone would see all the way to the current time where movies are filmed for millions to enjoy – we can’t get away from this idea of recording our existence. The author brings forth another quote stating that “Art can provoke, inspire, or disturb; it can open your eyes to worlds other than your own.” This perfectly sums up what I’m trying to get at. Art matters because we as humans say it does. Art is a chance for us to acknowledge the past present and future. I could read off an endless list of why art is important and why it matters but when it comes down to it art is simply putting forth an idea or a statement or even a memory that the artist wants someone to know. By creating something we are automatically making a time capsule for others to view. In the end, artists just want to be seen.