What would you want to say through art?

[Iskatehard]

Really.. We're all artists in one way or another. Be it you make music, write stuff, draw, ect...

And I know, some people take their mediums more seriously than others do..

Anyway.. I think one of the coolest things about art is the fact that you can layer some pretty in depth ideas into your work..

So.. If you're one that takes your art seriously.. Cool.. If you're NOT, let's speak hypothetically.

Say you're an upcoming artist in the industry (of whatever art you take part in).. Or hell, even if that's not the case..


What messages or whatever you'd call it would you want to try to layer into your work? What do you believe is good/right/whatever that is worth trying to convey in art and spread to others?

I understand it can really be a wide topic.. I mean, you likely have multiple messages you want to say.. So, list as many as you see fit.... I'm interested in reading your responses.

[spanky_dan]

Hmm, I really want to write a screenplay but I'm currently jumping between ideas for what to do, I might end up writing a few. So I guess the medium I'm using is a written text (but with a production in mind).

That said, I am interested into what themes I could weave into the stories. I like the idea of morality in general but I think it's too broad a topic. I am more taken by specific themes which could be explored; the nature of regret, the breakdown of relationships, wrong and right in extreme circumstances. Those were the first things which came to mind, I'd need to sit down longer and I will soon to really nail what I want to write about, but I like the thematics of a story which would focus on something like that.

A few of my favourite movies which feature thematic material that I admire would be;

American Beauty - The nature of freedom, innocence, love, and in particular beauty. Those are just a couple, it touches on so many things which I absolutely love. I'm so grateful that a movie like this could come along, it really is the greatest thing I've ever seen and inspires me to write something that could hopefully impact someone the same way this did for me.

Gone Baby Gone - The nature of morality in this film. If anyone hasn't seen it, don't read this as it may give away spoilers, but this was a brilliant film. The ending is one of the best I've seen, and the decision that is made by Kenzie is heartbreaking. He has to choose whether to do the morally right thing by returning Amanda to her mother - despite the fact his partner will be unable to forgive him if he does and that Amanda is in a much more loving, safer household, away from her drug-addled uncaring welfare parent - or whether he should do the ethically right thing by allowing Amanda to stay with her new "parents" (the police chief who has lost his daughter at an early age and provides her a loving, safe environment) who have come into her care through a staged kidnapping. He knows that if he calls it in, the police chief will be arrested and Amanda will be returned to her mother, but his partner will leave him. It really is an amazing ending and it's shot so well. This tale of morality struck me more deeply than anything I've seen or read before.

Magnolia - I recently saw this and I was very impressed by it. It's an extended character study which deals with many things I admire or am interested in; the nature of chance and coincidence, how the past affects us, the regrets of a dying man/men, the breakdown of the relationships between fathers and sons, husbands and wives, learning forgiveness. It all just really worked for me and I really enjoyed it.

Those three movies (and another Imaginary Heroes - dealing with the loss of a family member who commits suicide) all inspire me to produce a work dealing with themes in a similar way. Not necessarily the same ones, but to create a compelling story which resonates with an audience the same way these have with me.

But I'll try and brainstorm some ideas that I want to infuse in something I create and if I can do that by the time this thread is still new I'll post what I would want to communicate. I think it's also hard to start off with a theme and to create a story around it, it wouldn't be helpful for the flow of the narrative and the story in general, but if I do find something that strikes me as something I have to write about, I will let you know haha.

[drowning_fish]

You know I write draw make music and all that shit but I can never think of any of that. Any themes in anything I do is completely accidental/subconscious. I just write about the shit I see and what I think is funny and that's good enough for me, screw deep art. Most of it (all of it) goes over my head every time anyway.

[Fudopi]

I don't have a message to share, I just have thoughts to share.

And I get a new thought ever few seconds.

Really though, barely off topic but, you ever notice how certain sounds and rythms make you feel a certain way?

for example, you wouldn't here a love song with this beat
YouTube - Nas - On The Real (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ8AmN2XaIM)

and you wouldn't use this tone of voice for a love song either
YouTube - Nine / Make Or Take feat. Smooth Da Hustler (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYVcaQ1Bzu8)

know what I'm sayin, on a love song, it makes more sense to use a beat like this
YouTube - Twista feat. Kanye West & Jamie Foxx - Slow Jamz (Best Quality) with English subtitles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj0UM7cVyKo)

and actually sing and use a lighter voice. (I know that's not a love song... but it has the tone of one)

Cause slower beats and shit like that make you feel that way, so you'd well, feel that way.

And that's how I'd express my thoughts, I'd use the different tones and sounds. Like a lot of rappers an shit... they start talking about how much they love their girl but it's over a beat you'd like, bump in your car in a parking lot. It doesn't make you feel a certain way.

Like B.o.b and Kid Cudi said (except I think they were drunk when they said it), Music with soul sounds good no matter what, it either got soul or it don't.

[Iskatehard]

I understand that a lot of times you don't sort of make a message, and it just happens on itself. It seems if you sit down to create something for the sole purpose of getting a point across and nothing else, you will end up with a somewhat boring and unoriginal piece of work most likely..

But this is more of a hypothetical thread in a way. I mean.. Ideally, what messages/ideas do you think you'd like to get across to your audience? I'm sort of asking you to sort of put it basic, even though yeah, most art with messages seems to have said message layered in very carefully... But yeah, hopefully you know what I mean..

And to above post-

I understand and like what you're saying about sort of putting emotions into specific sounds or something like that. Maybe not "put them into", but create a sound that you think would cause somebody to feel a certain emotion or something..

That's actually something I've taken a lot of interest in lately. Like.. Lately when I mess with music.. I haven't really been trying to make a song at the moment.. But I'm just working on a synth and trying to make the best sounds I can for creating a vibe that I want my song to have.. It's pretty fun too, I gotta say. And in return I've learned a lot about this sound design stuff, which is nice.

On this note... Er, well.. On the note of voices I suppose.. And I know I sound like a broken record, but I feel like bringing up Elliott Smith.

His music is incredibly important to me, and I've tied a lot of emotions to it personally. But sometimes his songs... Like, just sort of "hit me", if you will. Like he'll be saying something and it just causes me to have this really weird emotion. It's hard to explain... But anyway, what I'm getting at is that I REALLY like the way his voice sounds.

A lot of people have told me they don't like his voice, but that just confuses me. It's very unique, I think. And something about it just screams sincerity to me... And that's incredibly important in music, I believe.

[Skateselect]

i would just make what i felt, and hope that people would get a feeling from it too. and i wouldnt want it to be the same feeling i myself put into it, i would hope it would effect people differently and uniquely.

[salvemaster]

I was just listening to this one Beatles song called 'Blue Jay Way,' n it's this really out there song off the Magical Mystery Tour album, and i've heard it like 50 times before.

And there was this one moment (i was pretty high at the time) where i had this vivid image in my mind of a guy trapped in a box and he was screaming, but i could barely hear him.

I remember that i was really trying to understand what the song meant, yaknow? And i kept coming back to that non-image of a guy trying to scream his pain away, but only so much was escaping, and just the fact that it was so soft made it that much more powerful, yaknow?

I've always known that what i want to put into my music is my own image, but i also want people to take that same image, but i think that might be impossible. We've all had such unique emotional experiences and they've all been so dramaticlaly influencing and powerful in whatever way they were, and that's what i want to capture and let other's become aware of.

Idk if that's possible though, yaknow? Like, we are all so different that it's really hard to imagine anyone having the exact same mental expirience as someone else. Fuck, this seems like a pointless post now.