Some insight, I hope

​Art School essays 
"Industrialism triggered the end of craft and divided makers from thinkers. Photography relieved painting and sculpture from the burden of documenting reality. And modernism allowed art decades of important psychological self-regard that affirmed the individual but unfortunately created a hermeticism that disconnected art from Middle America, making it suspect and irrelevant."  

Ernesto Pujol. "On the Ground" essay in Art School by Steven Henry Madoff

I rarely come across something in my readings that stops me in my tracks and I actually exclaim out loud, that's what I have been trying to figure out how to say! The article is about becoming a life long multidisciplinary artist, and how that is what the definition and future for being a contemporary artist is. I agree, although the thought is an intimidating one. The notion of perfecting a skill set, well attempting to perfect one is one of the reasons I started down the path of painting in the first place, to be able to paint not only what I see in front of me but to be able to interpret the feeling I have with the person or objects. To convey a human truth on a surface, a truth so universal that the style of painting, or the subject matter transcend the era or contemporary ideals. It doesn't matter that no one dresses like Rembrandt, what matters is the honesty portrayed in his self portraits, we can identify with him hundreds of years later, throughout his journey of self portraits we age with him, we recognize ourselves to be on the same journey through reality with him. Rembrandt never becomes outdated because like the morals in stories of old, they don't change. The characters and settings change, the language and the medium are updated or explored, but the moral stays the same. It is the same in a lot of the old masters work, we may update the fashion involved or change the medium, but when a universal human truth is realized it doesn't matter, it always is reflected. On a side note, you can tell how universal the human truth is because is there any question that someone with a complete different background doesn't see the same depth and beauty in a Rembrandt? No matter what language you speak or what country you hail from, the paintings speak to everyone who sees them, the truths are instantly translated to everyone through the visual language in the painting.