Why artistic endeavors are not a stupid, frivolous pursuit
This week I am reviewing Looking For Beauty: Humboldt’s Plein Air Community Shows Why Art Matters. It was compiled by CM Phillips and was published in 2022. It is difficult to find background information on CM Phillips because — apparently — CM Phillips is a very common name. It consists of short essays from dozens and dozens of artists that are about why art matters to them, why they paint, etcetera etcetera.
Plein air painting is the art of painting a landscape outdoors, as the light is shifting in front of you. This can be frustrating because light changes so quickly. However, many artists say it is an incredibly rewarding experience.
Many artists said that it is a way for them to connect with nature. It is a way for them to appreciate beauty, and a way for them to share that beauty with others. They said the times we are living in makes it more important to practice art, not less. They said that the arts aren’t some stupid, frivolous pursuit. One artist mentioned eight miles of painting on a rock wall that some archaeologists recently found. She said that’s the importance of art. That civilization was no more, but the art remained. Sophisticated art, at that.
What I took away from this book is that art isn’t a frivolous pursuit. Art is extremely important to civilization. It may not stop climate change, provide food, or anything like that, but every civilization has had art and we ignore it at our peril. Looking For Beauty is a compilation of essays on why art matters from a variety of local plein air painters. Something that came to my attention — that the author acknowledges — is that there are no painters of color in this book. This is very sad, but I guess no book is perfect. I also wonder if artists’ perspectives on their craft would have been different if artists’ from a wider variety of traditions had been included. How would an abstract artist feel about the importance of their craft in the face of climate change? What about an artist who paints cityscapes, or dogs and cats, or portraits?
If you are an artist, and you wonder why your craft is important, read this book. If you wonder in general why art is important, read this book. If you are an artist, and you are feeling like your profession doesn’t matter, read this book. If you are curious about art, you feel like you might want to try it out, pick up this book. This book deals a lot with the “why” of art, and not so much with other aspects, so it’s good in that way. This book is more about plein air than anything else though, so it might not appeal to people who want to paint other things. That said, if plein air is your thing, this book is probably for you. Go for it!
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