Some regard art as something civilizations create when their resources are so abundant, their security so resolute, that it allows for a lucky few to spend their efforts on something not considered an absolute necessity to maintaining life...but the first paintings upon cave walls were from the ash of fires, the stained hands of the harvest, the inspiration to tranfer knowledge. Art was the first language, the first distribution of knowledge beyond a persons lifespan. The universal language of image, performance, display, allowed for every generation to skip ahead the steps of discovering the skills of survival and obtained knowledge themselves and go straight to utilizing them, freeing time and energy to discover greater knowledge. The painting on the cave wall, the glyph on the pyramid, the carving into stone, was not result of a successful civilization it was the start of a successful civilization.
Art emerges not by taking from excess, but never allowing things to go to waste, creating something permanent in an ephemeral world, the transfer of knowledge, experience, wisdom, and our connections to the past.
The darkest times in our human history are made evident by a lack of artifacts. The times in history that lacked progression are those from which we have very little art. The era that moved us from those dark times was called the renaissance, that era had something key to art, which was the emergence of patronage, the supporting of creative people, places for them to pursue their ideas and avenues to share them with the world. The creators of that time were given asylum, sanctuary and the result was a new age.
Art requires a space, whether it's a cave wall, the protection of a walled garden to perform, inside the castle walls away from the battles, or raised up on high to allow as many as can see to experience.
Art requires Asylum.
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