Tradition-and-the-individual-talent by T.S. Eliot.
T.S. Eliot has perfectly described the joy and anguish of being an artist; the never-ending
journey of producing quality work while fighting against the cookie-cutter standards of poetry,
all the while figuring out your own personality and style in the midst of all other artists who
came before you is a take that one must comprehend in order to understand. The desire for
"newness" in art, unaware that fresh art is not only "new" but also a rebirth of all previous art.
The desire to identify an artist's uniqueness in their work, doing everything we can to distinguish
it from other works. We find satisfaction in discovering that an artist has their own personality, a
nuance never seen before, without conforming to traditional topics that have circulated in the
past.
However, works are not immune to criticism, whether constructive or destructive,
because it allows the audience to see errors and corrections that the artist may not notice in their
work. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is also not a good practice to consistently nail down
their work in the hopes of discovering a sliver of personality. I believe that criticism works best
when a work is completely problematic on its own, with no direction toward development or
education. If this trend continues, art will always reduplicate itself in different ways in the future,
potentially reproducing these contentious nuances; these should not be tolerated and, if possible,
dismissed as a whole to make way for more enlightening works.
Another argument with which I agree is that art is created through excruciating
self-sacrifice rather than technical knowledge. Learning new things outside of one's comfort zone
is a never-ending process. An artist continues to push the boundaries of what is considered
conventional or normal, but in exchange, they must be willing to lose themselves in the process.
The more refined the artist and the more capable they are of dissecting and creating art, the more
they self-sabotage in the name of their craft. Art is an extension of oneself, a collection of
feelings and emotions expressed solely by the artist. To create art, an artist must be willing to
give their all or none at all.
However, if you do art on a regular basis, you will eventually learn how to protect
yourself from this problem, as well as gain knowledge and experience in your own mediums and
styles. Your works may be more refined than those of others who have not delved deeper into the
art form in which you are interested. Nonetheless, it does not imply that immature artists lack the
capacity, personality, or ability to create art. It could simply mean that they haven't yet given or
discovered their personality to a craft that they want to enjoy (or escape from).
When Eliot said, "the business of the poet is not to find new emotions, but to use the
ordinary ones and, in working them up into poetry, to express feelings which are not in actual
emotions at all," I agree that art should evoke a wide range of emotions. However, the statement
is redundant because the combination of these various emotions leads to something greater,
which one has yet to experience. I believe it is impossible to have non-actual feelings after
experiencing something, whether it is negative or positive. I believe he was trying to say that art
has a spectrum of emotions that have captivated people for generations, and we are constantly
discovering new ones that fit the most in a given art.
In a nutshell, T.S. Eliot has examined what it means to be an artist and what it means to
be on the other side of it. The desire to create art that pushes boundaries, despite the constant
nagging from others to be traditional, contemporary, different, and the same all at once. The goal
to elicit feelings and emotions while remaining technically accurate, but not so much that it loses
sight of the essence of the art. It all leads to the artist's eventual escape from reality, transforming
enjoyment into a haven in which the mind is the primary guide of what is possible.
