The topic suggests that art may be used for human progress. The question then arises, what is human progress and what is it dependent on. Another word for progress is growth and growth is possible both externally and internally. The process of life itself is veered towards growth. When the winds of change are blowing and when one is rigid and does not bend, one breaks ones spine. You are against life, against its movement, against your own growth and the very principle of life. You stagnate, you die.

The external factors that contribute towards his growth would be work, money, a good house to rest in, position, fame etc. The internal factor that aids his growth would be his own awareness and understanding of the external world. These are the two sides of a coin. The role of art comes in the second category, though of course one cannot really categorize ones’ body and soul. Now, how does art help the growth process? 

An artist uses art as a tool to understand the ‘self’, its’ shortcomings, its’ resistances, fears, beliefs and the patterns it has woven around itself. He unravels the knots one by one, some very tight, tightened over long years of belief, and some not so very hard to untie. Once he gets a hang of it, he is also able to see himself tying the knots, and then struggling to untie it. He watches how automatically he gets caught; he watches his concerns and his needs and learns to overcome them. As the knots give way, the pressure that he has been feeling all along decreases, like a block has been removed from the pipe and the water is allowed to flow freely. With this understanding he is able to move on, to grow. 

                            What is remarkable is that as one grows out of ones’ insecurities one no longer uses art as a tool, for it need be used as one only if there are insecurities. Now he is free to use it as and when it happens. Here the reverse becomes true. You become the tool through which art ‘is’.  This is something that cannot be explained but can be lived by each one of us.

Living this marvelous process, the artist knows that the so called value of art is high in the initial stages when one is using art as a tool to explore the psyche. Towards the end it actually has no value. As in priceless. It is no longer yours for you to put a price on, but at the same time it is so naturally ‘you’, so simple, so effortless it does not seem like it has been created. The very word ‘created’ could imply effort that has gone into its creation and effort is what demands a high price in society. When something is effortless and enjoyable, one is trained to wonder if it is worth it, if it has any value at all.

Priceless-

The truth is that it is at this stage that it is truly of value- Priceless. To the artist, it is the most valuable thing that has happened to him. To the layman it functions as a symbol of hope, of awe. It is proof of light at the end of the tunnel. He enjoys a glimpse, but he hasn’t experienced it himself yet. Art functions as a trigger, it puts on various garbs for various people. It functions as a mirror and reflects the viewer. It contains within it the potential to be absolutely useless and also to be the pointer, the guide and the light. Art is that beautiful step into understanding, into awareness- The only step worth taking, the only step that moves, the only one that frees the soul.

A society that is dead to the arts is ‘evil’. Dead.  A painting on the outside is equivalent to a measure of ones’ sensitivity on the inside. The more sensitive, the more aware, and the freer you are. And art is the story of freedom, the process and struggle towards it.

Clearly if one is not sensitive, one cannot enjoy the abundant beauty around. Beauty is the potential to be free and what more is there but the beauty of the colour of a new born leaf or for that matter the colour of a dying one. What more than the smell of sandal when time sits heavily on ones’ shoulders? 

So a society that does not appreciate the arts is one that is not in touch with the poem that hibernates within, it is a society that is lost, wandering among the labyrinths of his emotions, in the unforgiving dark valleys of fear. Mad. Having said that, no work of art can alleviate him if he is not ready; if he does not desire; if he does not ‘let go’. That is why art is the most useless and the most useful gift on earth.

The time is ripe, the time is right, it cannot be worse; to shift our focus and let the arts shine through. Let the light shine through, for our own sake and for the sake of one and all.