Art as a Culture

1. Throughout all time and in every culture, art in general has served as a way to reflect a society's ideas, values and concerns. The Lascaux caves in France contain pictures mainly of animals such as buffalo, horses, cattle, mythical animals, a bird, bear, rhinoceros, one human and more. Through the emphasis of animals and very little on humans, I think these cave artists were trying to express their society's appreciation and value of animals that they hunt, ate and admired as they lived among them. It could have been that they wanted to document and boast their hunting successes to others. They also could have a spiritual connection with these animals as many tribal and paleolithic cultures did. Some of the animals were depicted in the paintings to be in motion and this may be an example of the power and physical strength that the artists saw in these animals every day and they wanted to express the beauty in that. Through these paintings, you can tell that they really valued the nature and wild life around them. They dedicated almost all of these cave paintings to different animals so that the focus was not on people at all. This may have been because they believed and appreciated animals more than they valued each other as people because of the animals' purpose to them (food, clothing, etc). These paintings could tell us a lot about how much these cave dwellers cared about their art and valued expressing themselves just like how we know artists like to express themselves today for the same reasons. It is an outlet, an expression of talent and has some possible functions such as it is enjoyable recreationally, can be admired by many people, is relatable and is a way for others to know the society that painted them. In fact, they valued their art so much that they went through difficulties to even paint these pictures in the first place. The height of the ceilings and the low drops in the cave would have required some sort of scaffolding system to reach them and to cover as much wall space as the cave artists did. That could not have been easy. They also would have needed light to navigate around the dark caves and paint these pictures so they would have always needed lit torches.

2. Possible functions of art in general that also applies to these cave paintings that I pointed out are that it is an outlet of expression, it is enjoyable recreationally, it can be admired by all people, is relatable and is a way for others to know about the artist through what they painted. These functions still stand very true today in all forms of art, both modern and older forms like these cave paintings. It allows the artist, regardless of what time they lived in, to express their feelings, their surroundings and values in a fun, creative way. For example, if the artists of these cave paintings in fact painted these animals because of a spiritual connection or belief in a certain animal, that can be equivalent to Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting of The Last Supper. They both express a person's religious values.

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0IDiVQxZYg
I am a huge fan of indie music. This video is an example of the style of music that I admire and want to explore more of. Not only am I interested in this particular genre of music, but the cinematography of the music video is quite prevalent throughout the indie genre and I want to explore more of that style as well with it's saturated colors, scenery, and cleverly artistic timing. I like how artists who practice this form of artistic expression use the video along with the music to tell a story as in this video. The visual of the video brings the song to life not just in one's ears and head, but now they can also see it. There is a culture that surrounds the indie music community. Artists and admirers make up this community and they all tend to be very passionate about this form of music and other artists. It is a job to many musicians and that entails living a certain lifestyle when traveling, playing their music, and meeting new people. It is all about sharing what they have created for others to enjoy and relate to. They speak through their lyrics and songs which is a language that anyone can understand and enjoy. That is why it benefits society: Because it does not matter who you are in the world, what time you live in or where, music is always relatable. It is something you can feel when you listen to it. It is a way that one can express exactly what they want to say or how they feel and relate it the lives of others.