With her permission, I am posting a note written to me by the brilliant Carolyn Raffensperger when I asked her if she thinks it is important for artists to make art during such troublesome times on the planet. I am posting because I think it will be inspiring for both artists and non-artists to hear her thoughtful views. Here is her response: Dear Robin, I want to tell you why I think artists are essential for social justice, especially during these days of terrible loss and deep struggle. I know the environmental movement best and I will speak from 30 years inside it. 1) Art can show us a future we want. It is much easier to create a future if we’ve imagined it beforehand. My friend Peter Montague says we won’t jump off the Titanic unless we see the lifeboats. Artists of all stripes tell stories, make music and paint pictures that show us possibilities for living in ways that our children might want to inherit. 2) Art let’s the activist know she isn’t alone. I have heard music and stories and seen images that told me there were others out there just like me--they are part of a resistance, a struggle. The struggle for justice can be so lonely. Art tells us our lives have meaning. 3) Art can show truths in ways that startle, move the dial, transform the debate, alter history. 4) Art speaks to the heart. I do law. The structure of law is analytical and has the power to challenge the mind. But changed minds aren’t sufficient. Minds generally follow hearts. Art is far better at changing hearts than any polemic, argument or set of facts. Your art is outside of words. That is its value to me. I know things when I see your paintings that I couldn’t know otherwise. You are speaking color, a primordial language of the sacred world. It is a language even beyond dreams. What I encounter in your paintings is something essential and distilled, a wellspring from which I source a will to live, to persist, to be a guardian. Carolyn Raffensperger
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 00:37:26 +0000
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