God the creator made all creatures from nothing while man, as the image of God uses his intelligence to create "Art" from the raw material of creation.
We in our western culture make many things to serve our needs such as a spoon for eating, but is it art? Today's mass produced objects are not art because they do not show the stamp of individuality nor their symbolic significance. To know true art we must look to traditional societies such as the American Indians.
On July 2, 2007 I visited the Keteri pow-wow, an Indian cultural event at Fonda, New York and I was struck by the beauty of the American Indian art.
These Indian pottery were in daily use and are unique works of art. You notice unusual decorations on them but for them they were not just decorations; they had symbolic meaning which referred to realities of creation and the spirit world. "It is the business of art to grasp the primordial truth, make the inaudible audible, to enunciate the primordial word, to reproduce the primordial image - or it is not art." (Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Chrisitian and Oriental Philosophy of Art, Dover Pub., Inc., NY 1943, p. 11) In the Indian culture art in all its forms nourished both body and soul.
The
American Indians had no writing but they used the dance to pass on their traditions.
As you can see, there is much symbolism on their ceremonial dress, so no dance
was purely a secular event. They looked at the world in a holistic way, inhabited
by spirits and were aware of the Great Spirit symbolized by the Eagle. A
feather,for
example, was a sacred
universal symbol of flight within the spirit world and serving as messengers
to Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit. Feathers fanned into a Circle-related
to the Sun and The Creator. A Flower symbolized
a relationship to the sun. The Moon was
earth protector and guardian of the night. Rain clouds
symbolized fertility, etc.
Please click image to enlarge ->
As
you can see, Indian jewelry makes excessive use of beads. We know that the craft
of making beads goes back to prehistoric times c. 30,000 years and that it took
considerable effort (1-3 hours) of work to created one spherical bead. Why all
this effort to make something for no practical use? They saw in nature roundness
in flowers, drops of water, the sun and moon, etc. In creating the perfect sphere
they may have wished to express perfection and unity. This unity of all things
was also EXPRESSED in stringing together of beads to make necklaces, bracelets
and rings. Beads are used in the prayers forms of many religions which indicates
a primordial awareness of the sacred inherent in this symbol.
The
Indian search for ultimate truth in the symbolical aspects of nature find its
ultimate expressions in God's revelation. In this Indian iconography the Father
is depicted surrounded by eagle feathers in a hallow of light. His open hands
deliver the Son, a victorious Sioux warrior and the Eagle completes the Trinitarian
love and unity.
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"The traditional
iconography gives witness to the human face of the Sacred. This icon,
IMAGED in the features of America's indigenous peoples, reveals anew that
sacred power. It celebrates the soul of he Native American as the original
spiritual presence on this continent, and as a prophetic sign, it celebrates
the reconciliation of the spiritual vision of Native and Christin peoples
of this land." (Fr. Jon Giuliani)
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6.
Truth of Intelligent Machines