Order in a World of Chaos

Here is an update on art-for-the-sake-of-order idea (the reason why I am writing about this is because it really interests me and ... Well come on, is there anything else to write about?). So, Mr. Johnson argues that man uses the arts (technical, practical, and fine) to make sense of the world around us. A world that is pure Chaos. What we need is order in our lives, and since we are the only beings that notice the chaos, or at least care about it, we try to fix it with out arts. Further, we imitate the irrational things, namely nature, and in doing so make it rational. The two best examples of this are the cave paintings in France and Spain, and the Celtic knotted animals created by the Irish monks. In both cases men are taking the irrational and creating a ordered whole out of it. In fact, the Celtic knots are probably the best examples of real art. They take the so-complex-it-is-unknowable-to-us and represent that complexity and unknowable with their tangles and cris-crosses. When you look at those knotted animals eating each other you are looking at art that is equal to or better than anything the great Dutch (realist) masters created. In fact the master craftsmen did something that is all but impossible to replicate.

On another note, thinking about art really makes you discontent. I want to be rich now. I want want to be a Cossimo De Medici type, with all the best art in my personal possession. Also looking at art requires a lot of travel, and I don't mean to museums. I hate museums; with the five thousand people standing around a Renoir pretending their cultured because they are looking at the impressionists paintings and skipping the David, Friedrich, and Courrot in the next room. No travel means going to the cathedrals and little village churches, or wandering around east Turkey finding the seventeen hundred year old Amenian Church, or finding spectacular ruins of Magna Grace in Sicily. I need to stop thinking about this, and then I need to get off this Campus, then I need to make a lot of money.