WealthBecomesArt is dedicated to sharing work with the through line of Becoming. We can align the format to many variations; nature (WaterBecomesIce), (LightBecomesLife), states of being (EgoBecomesDetachment), (CuriosityBecomesKnowledge), (HappinessBecomesContentment), creativity (WordsBecomeExpression) to name a few. But also our own act of continuity. We’re constantly within a state of becoming, through learning, discovery, experience. And within this space; through essays, dialogue, short story, perhaps a longer form piece from time to time, we will explore the concept. Feel free to join this exploration. Posts to be shared Thursdays. (Additional pieces to be attributed to the community.)
I suppose, if we are to begin anywhere upon this informative inebriating journey, it is here.
Wealth Becomes Art.
I won’t claim to give its all encompassing meaning, but, a perspective I can allude to.
Firstly, it is a dichotomy of two connected paths that traverse toward one another via another. Allow me to follow the route of their trail to better understand their direction.
Now, to wealth.
I believe in our age, the 21st century, and many ages past resounding, wealth is viewed as a prominent yet vulgar and distant term; it bears a rotten opulent underbelly which we won’t plunge toward here.
Only the few have it, breathe it, carry it in their prideful statures. No ordinary person, that looks toward their widescreen windows to see mildly presented disasters at play the world over could hope to conger the spirit to hold true wealth. To have too much of much is distasteful.
Inherently there comes a chasm of unravelling beliefs, many attach the term ‘sinister’, but we cannot cover all terms here; those that are wealthy, are perceived to be duplicitous, stiff and stylish, barren of class and gentrified, absolutists with abundance of choice, literary toffs and tasteless or overlords of menace tattooed with philanthropy. They are a striding contradictions. But oddly, we all know of someone, and they seem, unspectacular.
There is however, a question we can ask; How can one so wealthy be a true philanthropist, without giving all of their money away? I suppose Philanthropy becomes Poverty doesn’t quite ring.
In honesty, this isn’t what I seek to unravel, but let us remain with the perspective to distill the footprints further down this narrow path. There is a truth somewhere along this route, but that will forever be our own, to see, to whisper, to hear.
We know of the variations of wealth: inherited, acquired justly or unjustly, competed for, built or divinely attributed. We need only, if we care to, peruse modern history, where we can conjure images of Maharajahs of India, Royals of United Arab Emirates, Sheiks of Qatar, Sultans of Brunei or Princes and Princesses and Aristocrats of Europe. Also over the hill, in business, we see the tall family names of Rockafella, JP Morgan, Dyson, Walton, Mars, Koch, or individuals Dalio, Buffett, Branson… we could reach back to our wise Solomon of the Bible. We could also pitch off road into a near gutter and conspire down there, but we won’t. Back to the road.
Now to our parallel, Art.
What is art, but ceremonial expression captured in form, the form of jewels comes to the fore; Cartier, Van Cleef and Arpels, Harry Winston, Boucheron or Tiffany, each notably founded circa 20th century. Fashion Houses, Luxury Automobiles, Estates, etc etc, Islands… Yes, our very own Branson and Ellison own such landmasses Lex Luther would be proud of. Noted, many of the aforementioned are the Islands they inhabit.
Let us leave the people, persons, families or figures behind for a moment, we needn’t their beings while we allow our minds to form articulated pathways to that which is the clearest depiction we know. Of course we are speaking of the eponymous category itself, Art, canvas and brush. Art. We see it instantly, it takes but a colour, or landscape, a name; Van Gogh, Picasso, Rembrandt and more names through the centuries:
16th - Michelangelo, Titian, Da Vinci
17th - Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer,
18th - Francisco Goya, Thomas Gainsborough, Jacques Louis Davids
19th - Manet, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Degas.
Whatever our understanding, we know, that a piece of canvas and brush emerging from these eras, from student of said master or master themselves, comes with an allotted impossible value, regardless, we know what we can see, something beyond skill.
Now, we near the end of these narrow walkways.
Just a light step backward. Among the auction houses of Sotheby’s where we see how outlandishly wealth meets art, we can add more names and the 20th here, one Basquiat and from our own 21st, Banksy. Their names are enough to see.
Here, the needle directs us true north toward our aim.
Wealth alone, has no meaning, it must connect with something of value. Art is art only in the eyes of the perceiver.
Allow me, in wrapping, to touch on another form of art, music. Music represents that which depicted visuals cannot. When we think of an artist, composition, film score, or again, a name:
Mahler, Sibelius, Olafur Arnolds, Jay Z, Aaliyah, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Arctic Monkeys, Aretha Franklin, Elvis, Sting, Ed Sheeran.
We attribute accordingly the feeling or an association:
Violins; Horns; cinematic; Lyric and Rhythm; Song and Serenity; Depth; Jazz; Drums, Yorkshire; Power, Soul; King; Smooth; Melody, Chorus.
We feel something. Sense something.
We’ve slowed on the path of Art, allow me to apply pointed pace.
What is Art? If we look at the definition, it is: “The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture…” or/and “Works produced by human creativity, skill and imagination.” Here we find ourselves.
Art, is many, it is perception, trend, muse, vision. Art, is creation. It has always and will forever be creation. Of what? Imagination, imitation, meditation? It is the honing of ones skills. It is Jackson Pollock, Louis Cartier, Coco Chanel, Dickens, Tolstoy, Vivaldi. (Names, more names, I give them because they mean something, to someone, or they carry with them an art form, they do not necessarily define it, but they carry the form, they define Art, within a certain form. Remember this point on form.
Art, through time has transpired to become consistently revolutionary. It is forever a trend amongst us, is the captivating capability of ones desire to create, or to express some inner essence. (Note; we have left the lighted path and are guided by street lamps.) Yes, physical pieces orbit the wrists or walls of the wealthy. But I allude only to the expression and form, of art. Value exists externally, but it is cultivated internal value that matters to all.
We’re between paths, betwixt a perspective, an ideal, an idea formulating from fractured parts of the whole.
Now, I ask you, to forget much of the above definitives, names, or conceptual… take a breath, pause, erase. We’ve arrived.
Solemnly, I wish to share one singular perspective, that wealth, is not attributed to money or status. It is a collection of ones most valuable cultivated internal resource, energy. Art is not attributed to canvas or external values. It is the expression of one’s desires within their proper form. This form, is without form until it is chosen. Remember the point on form.
Again.
Wealth, is cultivation and resource yes, but of a certain resource that cannot be attributed to one’s pocket. Art is an amalgamation of desires expressed into a form. And these two, aligned, are within a continual transition, a continual transfer. As light to leaf brings life, Wealth to Art allows brings life. Brings what one can Become. WealthBecomesArt (The form, I amalgamated)
In closing; your wealth becomes your art. Each relies upon the other. Your energy, becomes, your expressed form.
Before I lose you at this precipice, we ourselves have a need to aspire, a need to become, but we cannot become without the cultivation of resources feeding into our expression of forms.
To wrap, for posterity, and to define the above simply: a clear example, let us say, wealth is represented in this example by ones ‘knowledge’ (= to energy) and ones Art in form is ‘spoken word’ (Expression in form) one can become and Orator, Storyteller, Actor, Preacher, Teacher.
Again, and finally.
Your Art, is your brush in hand, your foot over the ball, your hand upon the piano keys, your pencil lacing the page, your finger clicking flash, it is whatever you choose. Your wealth, in essence is your engine, your energy.
Energy Becomes Expression.
Adieu,
WealthBecomesArt
Adieu.