Brain Babies: What the F*ck is Art?
I have made the joke, more than once, upon seeing a collection of metal scrap, say, on someone’s lawn, that, if a thing has no clear purpose, it must be “art”. I’m a tiny bit ashamed of that now, especially since a great deal of my own output is what many consider to be a lowbrow, crude sort of writing. That’s fine. I’ll own that. I’m not exactly literary. I like to tell stories. There’s no shame in that. Anyway, this got me thinking about art, and how it is interpreted, and how that changes from person to person. Here’s what I came up with.
Art expresses human emotion, or the conveyance of an idea, through a (usually) visual medium.
That’s from the dictionary.
What the hell is art? It’s blood flung at the canvas. It’s sweat and tears and cum. Art is peeling off your face, revealing the bones beneath, exposing your secret fears, laying bare your desire.
Art is a sustained note in a song that tugs your heart hard against your ribs. It’s a painting that makes you cry, for no discernible reason.
It’s Van Gogh’s mad, swirling stars, Janice Joplin’s voice you can almost screw. It’s stumbling through Hell with Bosch. Georgia O’Keeffe’s sweet-smelling vulva in full bloom.
Art is a story you cannot escape, a book so good you wish it would go on forever. Art is scary, and messy, and gorgeous. It’s loud, subversive, and chaotic.
Artists are mad.
They are my favorite people.
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Ken MacGregor writes stuff. Sometimes, he edits stuff too.
He has two story collections: AN ABERRANT MIND, and SEX, GORE & MILLIPEDES, a young adult novella: DEVIL’S BANE (YA winner of the 23rd annual Critters Readers Poll), a co-written (with Kerry Lipp) novel: HEADCASE (available in serialized form), and is a member of the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers (GLAHW). He is a somewhat regular contributor to HorrorTree with his column Brain Babies. He has also written TV commercials, sketch comedy, a music video, some mediocre poetry, and a zombie movie. Ken is the Managing Editor of Collections and Anthologies for LVP Publications. He’s curated two anthologies: BURNT FUR for Blood Bound Books, and STITCHED LIPS for Dragon Roost Press..
When not writing, Ken drives the bookmobile for his local library. He lives with his kids, two cats, and the ashes of his wife.
Ken can be found at the staggeringly egocentric-named website kenmacgregor.com.
