During my upper-division studies at California State University, Fullerton, I took two elective philosophy courses that would have a lasting influence on my life and my development as an artist. Those courses were existentialism and aesthetics. Although they approached philosophy from different directions, both challenged the way I thought about myself, the world around me, and the very nature of art.
To this day, I consider them among the most meaningful courses I took during my college education.
Existentialism: What Does It Mean to Be Alive?
Existentialism asks some of the biggest questions a human being can confront. Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Does God exist? Are we born with a purpose, or must we create one for ourselves?
These are not questions with simple answers. In fact, one of the things I found most fascinating about existentialism was that it encouraged me to question the answers I had already been given.
Philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Friedrich Nietzsche explored the relationship between human freedom, responsibility, religion and the search for meaning. Although their philosophies differed, they shared a willingness to challenge traditional assumptions about human existence.
One of the central ideas of existentialism is that we are responsible for creating meaning in our own lives. Rather than simply accepting a predetermined purpose, we have the freedom to make choices and define ourselves through our actions.
For an artist, this is an especially powerful idea.
When I sit down to paint, write a book or compose music, I am making choices about how I interpret my existence. My experiences, imagination, emotions and beliefs become part of the creative process. I am not simply reproducing the world around me. I am expressing what it means to be alive in that world.
Existentialism also introduced me to different perspectives on atheism and religion. While not all existentialists are atheists, many question whether life requires a divine purpose to have meaning. This opened my mind to the possibility that meaning itself might be something we create rather than something we discover.
Perhaps that is one of the greatest freedoms an artist can have: the freedom to create meaning where none has been prescribed.
Aesthetics: What Is Art?
My other philosophy course, aesthetics, approached creativity from an entirely different direction.
Instead of asking what it means to exist, aesthetics asks what makes something beautiful, meaningful or worthy of being called art.
What is art? What isn't art? Who gets to decide?
Is a realistic oil painting necessarily better than an abstract painting? Can a child's drawing be considered art? What about graffiti, photography, comic books, digital illustration or a conceptual artwork consisting of an ordinary object placed in a museum?
And perhaps most importantly, does art have to be beautiful to be meaningful?
These questions fascinated me because they challenged many of the assumptions I had developed about artistic achievement.
Like many artists, I had spent considerable time learning how to draw and paint realistically. Technical skills, perspective, anatomy, composition and color theory were important parts of my education. I still believe these skills are valuable.
But aesthetics taught me that technical perfection and artistic greatness are not necessarily the same thing.
A painting can be technically brilliant and communicate very little. Another painting might be crude, distorted or even deliberately unfinished, yet communicate something profoundly emotional or intellectually stimulating.
Consider the difference between a photorealistic portrait and an expressionist painting. One might capture the precise appearance of a person, while the other captures how that person feels or how the artist experiences them.
Which is better?
Perhaps neither. Perhaps they are simply attempting to accomplish different things.
That realization was liberating.
Five Art History Classes and a Whole New World
Along with these two philosophy courses, I took five art history classes. Together, they dramatically expanded my understanding of what art could be.
Studying the development of art through different cultures and historical periods showed me that artistic standards are constantly changing.
The Renaissance emphasized perspective, anatomy and classical ideals of beauty. Impressionism challenged academic traditions by exploring light, color and perception. Expressionism placed greater importance on emotion and psychological experience. Cubism fractured conventional representations of reality, while abstraction questioned whether recognizable subject matter was necessary at all.
Then came movements such as Dada, Surrealism, Pop Art and Conceptual Art, each challenging traditional definitions of artistic expression.
Artists were no longer required to paint what they saw. They could paint what they felt, imagined, remembered, questioned or dreamed.
This opened an entirely new direction for my own work.
I began to understand that I didn't have to spend my life creating realistic oil paintings to be considered a serious artist. I could experiment with watercolor, illustration, cartoons, graphic novels, symbolism, abstraction, music videos and other forms of expression.
I could even combine different artistic disciplines.
My writing, music and visual art could become different ways of exploring the same ideas.
The Artist as Philosopher
I have come to believe that artists and philosophers have more in common than we might initially assume.
Both ask questions about the human experience. Both challenge established beliefs. Both search for meaning, although they may use very different methods.
The philosopher uses language, reasoning and argument. The artist uses images, sounds, stories, emotions and imagination.
Of course, artists can also use words, and philosophers can be highly imaginative. The boundaries between the two are not always clear.
When I create a graphic novel about mental health, I am doing more than telling a story. I am exploring questions about identity, perception, society and the human condition.
When I paint a portrait, I am not merely recording someone's physical appearance. I am interpreting that individual through my own experiences and artistic sensibilities.
And when I compose music, I am expressing feelings and ideas that might be difficult to communicate through ordinary conversation.
In this sense, my art becomes a personal philosophy.
It is a way of asking questions, exploring possibilities and making sense of my own existence.
Does Art Need a Purpose?
This brings me to another interesting question. Must art serve a purpose?
Some believe art should communicate a social or political message. Others believe its purpose is beauty, entertainment or emotional expression. Still others argue that art needs no justification beyond its own existence.
I believe the artist should have the freedom to decide.
An artist may create something to sell, to make a statement, to entertain an audience or simply for personal enjoyment. None of these purposes automatically makes the work more or less legitimate.
For me, art has served many purposes throughout my life. It has been a profession, a form of communication, a source of enjoyment and a way of dealing with personal struggles.
It has also helped me understand myself.
Perhaps that is where existentialism and aesthetics come together.
Existentialism asks us to consider how we create meaning in our lives. Aesthetics asks us to consider how we create and experience meaning through art.
Together, they suggest that artistic expression can be both an exploration of existence and a means of giving that existence personal significance.
My Philosophy of Art Today
Looking back on my education at Cal State Fullerton, I realize that these two philosophy courses and five art history classes did much more than provide academic knowledge.
They changed the way I approached creativity.
I became less concerned with whether my artwork conformed to a particular standard and more interested in whether it expressed something meaningful to me.
I learned that realism is only one artistic language among many. I also learned that originality, imagination, experimentation and personal expression are essential parts of the creative process.
This doesn't mean that craftsmanship is unimportant. Quite the opposite. I continue to study techniques and develop my skills. But I no longer believe that technical ability alone determines the value of an artwork.
Art can be intellectual, emotional, humorous, disturbing, beautiful, ugly, political, personal or completely absurd.
Sometimes it can be all of these things at once.
And that is what makes it so fascinating.
The Final Question
So what is the meaning of life, and what is art?
I don't pretend to have definitive answers to either question.
But I do believe that asking them has made me a better artist and a more thoughtful person.
Existentialism taught me to question my existence and consider the freedom I have to shape my own life. Aesthetics taught me to question the boundaries of art and recognize the enormous possibilities of creative expression.
Together, they helped me move beyond the idea that being an artist simply means learning to draw or paint realistically.
Being an artist also means learning to think, question, imagine and express.
Perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that I don't have to wait for someone else to tell me what my life means or what my art should be.
I can explore those questions for myself, one painting, one book and one song at a time.
And perhaps the questions themselves are just as important as the answers.
by Dan and Bonkers
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