Ryan's Art Manifesto

Every act of creation is an act of expression. An artist can never remove the work from the individual. This is one of the great things about art, the truth behind it comes precisely from the fact the created work cannot be separated from the artist. Instead, the art and the artist are connected in such a way they become inseparable from each other. The elements of the artist’s personality become the building blocks of the person’s work. True art occurs when the artist expresses the willingness to open to the medium and acknowledge the inner self. Thus, certain elements of the artist need to appear on the page to round out the work and make it accessible for the audience. Art can only be considered art when it connects the artist to the world through shared emotion or experience. Work that remains hidden cannot be considered art because it does not fulfill the task of connection. One of the aims of art is growth, both for the audience and for the artist, and this cannot occur unless the work is submitted into the greater dialogue surrounding the subject, whatever it is. Because work must establish a connection to function as art, it must be accessible to the audience. Accessibility does not entail an oversimplification of the project, does not mean making the topic and the goal of the work painfully obvious and insulting to the intelligence of the audience. Accessible does not mean simplistic. Accessible entails having a purpose behind the work, one that can be discerned and comprehended through a close examination by a devoted audience. Works containing meaning known only by the creator, works omitting essential elements vital to an accurate interpretation of the work’s underlying concepts, works intentionally misleading to the audience with the intention of never bringing the true issue to light—these are works that do not constitute art because they do not connect the audience with the artist in any constructive way. Art possesses the ability to broaden the experiences of the audience and cause those who appreciate it to view the world in ways previously undiscovered. Because of this, artists carry a responsibility to present accurate representations of the worlds of their work. Again, just as accessible does not immediately mean simple, accurate does not necessarily suggest factual. Accurate means the world created by the artist will consistent throughout, or explained if it changes. Artists must follow the rules they devise through the creation of their work. Even when these created worlds closely mirror the physical world, they must still represent their own, separate existence. Kafka created a world in which a man could turn into a bug; he did not create our world. To borrow a definition, the purpose of art is to teach and to delight. The connection the artist makes with the world provides the audience the opportunity to connect with the artist and the created world of the text. Connections with the world establish moments of learning and empathy when the audience moves beyond itself and experiences something larger. This discovery leads to moments of transcendent delight, often childlike in its simplicity and intense depth. Instances that are among the truest moments of joy an individual may ever experience. This connection with the world and the moments of peace and happiness that accompany them are what make art so important for the progression of the individual into an autonomous figure created out of self-knowledge and self-mastery and also for the advancement of a society created out of these contributing individuals who in turn seek to contribute their own voices to the dialogue and communication that is art.