why Art?

art has  an important role in our society, and one of it’s most important traits is that barely anyone can understand why. this is not an elitist principle. it requires no formal arts education to understand it better. what it does require is a simple realization. this realization come to many people in many different ways. some people make this discovery by writing or drawing or dancing. some people through being a misfit or from being angry at the world. others are inspired by people who have seen the world for what it is, and passionately show that they can see it too. this simple conclusion is that not everything in Life makes sense.
in fact, in our blissfully chaotic realm of existence barely anything does. the fact that a cluster of atoms sticks together in the exact way that makes you you and me me,on a rock that happens to have the exact perfect conditions to support life, in a galaxy which has an infinitely expanding horizon, is beyond comprehension. yet here we are. and that’s a beautiful thing. yet in our zany little world nothing seems to reflect the irrefutable Truth which is the unpredictability of Life. we are trained to believe that Life is otherwise. that Life can and should be linear and manageable. we go to school training ourselves to someday have complete domination over what we do, who we spend time with, and how we spend our money.  we are told that Life is in our control, yet a closer look quickly proves otherwise.
how many choices are made under direct influence of those who are most important in our lives ? we vote for who our parents vote for, we go to school for what our teachers tell us we are good at, we Love who society tells us we are good enough to Love. we go through Life making choices, but the choices we make are rarely our own.  this is why the role of art is so important.
a doctor's Life is all about meaningful moves. every class enriches their overall knowledge of the field they are about to enter, all his volunteering hours flesh out his resume, friends visited on free time are meaningful contacts. when they go to dinner parties they can freely and happily discuss “what do you plan to do with your Life?”  
an artist's navigation of the same conversation is not always easy. we stumble through an attempt to put into words that there is rarely a course list that exactly aligns with what our Heart has called us to do. duty to one's family, or country, or society is highly valued. but if you tell someone you are responding to the duty of your Heart, you are likely to be scoffed at and dismissed as a silly hippy, as conversation rolls back to the easily digestible doctor's day.
but that isn’t to say that there is any sort of heriarchical order between doctors and artists. thank god for doctors! and thank god for artists too! the world does not exists in a vertical realm of better or worse, only a horizontal realm of differences. and as an artist, all i could hope for is an acknoweldgment that my difference has value too.
for Life has called us to express ourselves. no more. no less. Art tells us that all we must do to fulfill our purpose is exist. and as we exist to share our experience with others. the artist’s role in society is to create a bridge. where that bridge takes you is up to every individual who encounters Art.  
by becoming this special type of architect, artist's enjoy many luxuries that those who lead a sensible Life may never fully appreciate. above all else we enjoy the luxury of being able to use our brains unconventionally. most people would never consider that everything from the way they move their bodies, to the words they use ,and the views they have are a direct projection of a constant input of data they have been susceptible to from birth. sitting, standing, please and thank you’s, and societal expectations of dating, education and career. completely systematized. a few people might suspect it. but most don’t care. those who do, are artists. they commit their full Life force and Energy into learning not only how to think for themselves, but how to innovate new thought patterns. we are thought alchemists spinning realities from dreams. but most people would describe what we do in one word: useless.    
yet this is our greatest gift.  in learning how to think for ourselves, we put ourselves in a different realm from the majority. we twist and breath to the rhythm of a different song. we practice rhymes until our cadence captivates, but most will never hear it. we paint and prod and smear until we can draw a new conclusion. yet most people will spend less than thirty seconds observing an art piece, even one as culturally significant as a Picasso. this is the beauty of Art. this is Art’s purpose. for when a dancer is expressing their Heart and Soul through movement, or when an musician is spending their twelfth hour straight jamming on their guitar, many people can’t understand why- and it doesn't matter. the drive to create is so strong that the reason to keep exploring does not come from anywhere but within. but when that one person does encounter it, and feels in themselves their own cosmic dance awakening, this is worth the cost of one thousand apathetic faces.  
some people create for other reasons. to get a grade, to gain prestige, or to impress. but this makes art too functional, too conrete, and somehow sullies its essential vacancy. true art is useless. it doesn’t make sense. it’s not direct and it your Aunt Glenda won’t like it. but the Universe is listening. the Universe responds to a Life dedicated to representing the rawness of an experience that cannot be replicated or easily explained. and the openness of Art means that if it is useless, it is for everyone. no matter what your interpretation, it’s right. no matter what experience you have of it (even boredom or frustration) it is important, as it makes you revisit and confront all aspects of humanity-not just the easy ones.    
Art teaches people how to Live. not everyone, and not all the time. even the greatest of artists will be confronted with questions of why they create or what they contribute to the world. the answer is always nothing. that no one has or ever will change the way the world intrinsically is. but Art may help you deal with this. Art may help you reach out and be brave enough to follow a path less taken. Art may guide you towards a value system that comes from deep within the soul and not simply copy and pasted from the world around you.  
and Art may lead you to the Truth that the way the world intrinsically is, (and not the world humans have made it) is actually a wondrous place to be.
in it’s empty uselessness this is what art does for me. it’s personal. and what it does (or doesn’t) do for you is personal too. and it’s perfect. and it’s magic how we both can have our way with it and it doesn’t change what it essentially is. an empty screen for a million new projections.
Art has no purpose.  
Art has no direction.  
Art does not need to validate itself.  
Art is Alive. And always will be.  
For artists will always feel the pull, the push, the yearning,
to make Love to the blissful chaos of existence.