Up: [[Sharing]] Created: 2024-01-03 > [!Orbit] Howard Zinn from a paper entitled *Artists in Times of War* > When I think of the relationship between artists and society — and for me the question is always what it could be, rather than what it is — I think of the word ‘transcendent.’ …By transcendent, I mean that the artist transcends the immediate. Transcends the here and now. Transcends the madness of the world. Transcends terrorism and war. The artist thinks, acts, performs music, and writes outside the framework that society has created. The artist may do no more than give us beauty, laughter, passion, surprise, and drama. I don’t mean to minimize these activities by saying the artist can do no more than this. The artist needn’t apologize, because by doing this, the artist is telling us what the world should be like, even if it isn’t that way now. The artist is taking us away from the moments of horror that we experience everyday — some days more than others — by showing us what is possible. Zinn is speaking of public artists, of artists who share their work, and for many people, perhaps including Zinn, that element of sharing is a key part of the definition of artist. But I feel differently. While a public artist has the most direct impact on society because people are experiencing his/her work, I believe that making, when it’s done at least in part from a receptive frame of mind, still allows the individual artist to transcend the here and now and bring a bit of beauty, laughter, or surprise to the world. That’s certainly my fervent wish and has already every so often been my experience.