reward good art

Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.

Amy Lowell

It’s impossible to ascribe a value to art based solely on its constituent materials:

• the worth of a painting is not the sum of the cost of the paints, canvas, and easel used to create it.
• the worth of a poem is not a calculation of the amount of paper and ink used to record it.
• the worth of a dance or musical performance is not the rental cost of the space, instruments, and props.

The arts may seem expensive by standard measurements of discrete, measurable (and usually financial) returns. But the absence of art would be even more expensive; Art is the “why.”

Perhaps the cost of art is a measure of choosing to support the artist in their pursuit of expressing a certain vision and perspective (paying for what they see and how they see it). Ask-

Do you believe this piece of art is genuine, and worth pursuing? Has it affected you? Does it expose something inside or outside yourself that was always there but you had not considered yet?

Depending on the answer, reward good art and support its continuation.