An interesting question was posed to me a little while ago.  What song was at the top of the charts when I was born.  Being a child of the sixties it seemed that I was blessed with an array of sounds and feelings that changed a country preconceived ideas about culture.  Musicians such as The Beatles, The Who, and The Rolling Stones helped pave the way for the original "indie" artists like Bob Dylan, blues rocker Janice Joplin, Jimi Hendricks just to start.  Harmonies set to fly by artists such as Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young changed musical history on much the same level as the early blues musicians Slaves began to sing and generations later civil rights had the new "slaves" singing about peace and free love.

I have been observing the world culture lately as most of us have.  One of the proven lessons that I learned while studying humanities in order to earn my (wait for it) B.S. Degree from Northern Arizona University is that social change is always prefaced by periods of incredible literature, art, and music.  These can be broken down further to include movements such as surrealism or literature from poets like John Keats.  Mary Shelly created a monster and published a novel in an era when women were slaves to the social constraints of propriety having no rights of their own. Women were slaves in a "civilized" bondage.  Somehow I have digressed, as music is the focus today and the power of art on human culture.

The Caves at Lascaux in France were mentioned the other day.  If you have not checked out the artwork left on the cave walls in France I suggest you do.  I am humbled by the beauty of art in all forms. Human beings have always found an outlet in art.  Periods of great change create the to experiment with new mediums and forms; new meaning is felt by those artists and musicians looking for a new voice all their own.  With this thought in mind, what is on the horizon in the world today?  Culture is driven by instant gratification either by the ability to be "aware" of all the mundane to sublime and incredible circumstances in individual lives.  I saw first steps of an eleven month old baby on Facebook today brought to the world by the magic of Youtube.  My first thought was would that child be able to read, or is that boy going to need to go back and crawl someday.  Society seems in a hurry, to do what I am not sure, be there faster, and know more than their competitors. But is life really become a competition to get to the end first?   The wireless generation is no longer attached to cords plugged in to a wall, or headphones plugged into a turntable.  The moments blur together in an endless dance of the next best great thing.  I want to slow down and wait  for a modern day Monet or Michelangelo. What is the hurry in life anyway?

Here we are, back in the midst of change.  Political shifts in power are being driven by a crumbling economy. There is no middle class in America today. I am excited to see the renaissance that will come of the inevitable destruction of our institutions and what beauty springs up out of the chaos.

ART AND ME by Lisa Whealy

It is a difficult thought, pondering the world and my life without art. Humanity would be silenced by the deafening sound of nothing; music of song, voice, and instrument would share the abyss with a lack of poetry’s limerick or literature’s voice. Colors which fill a painting would be absent in the blank that shared no glory or form, a palette of nothingness. Photographs would live eternal in the memories of yesterday, holding court with all the past moments in my life. In my world, art is a significant foundation of who I am as a person. Architecture crafted by Michelangelo or Falling Water that is art, my life is simply a reflection in the process of becoming alive.

As a child I was fascinated with music; play was melodic notes soaring from clarinet, piano, and oboe in pursuit of my own melody. Beyond swinging Goodman’s sound, blues colored a world of social contrast. Vision imported from international protest gave rise to crescendos of change affecting political art. Beatles, Bullocks and a Bullet in a Bible, every good boy deserves fun. Empty space filling silence with beauty artistically, balance and key craft revolutionary song. Vibration heard within a soul, this is the soundtrack of my life.

Art is life, passion, love, lust, colors undefined, seasons brimming with rain, and burning with sun. Art is something which defies definition, yet empowers all who experience the shades of its brilliance; whether liked or disliked, good art creates reaction. Masterpieces can be accidental, laborious, or a challenge among friends as was Mary Shelly’s monster. Ears that do not hear can create symphonies lasting through the ages resonating brilliance. For me to question what place art shares in my heart is to deny the very clay that has molded me into the woman I am.