WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?

“ART LOOK” with Markus Ray is an interactive web log dedicated to ART, the LOOK-ing at ART, mostly at visual ART…PAINTINGS & PHOTOS…as well at the “inner visuals” discovered by LOOK-ing with the mind in the reading of POEMS.

It is designed to involve the LOOK-ers with an opening in their VISION. It is our deepest and highest desire at “ART LOOK” to raise the consciousness of the viewer into greater states of JOY and well BEING. The purpose of all ART is to UPLIFT and INSPIRE….and by LOOK-ing at ART, if you are not uplifted and inspired, then the artist did not do a proper job, or you have not stretched your mind adequately to take in the vision being given.

“ART LOOK” is educational, in the sense that it teaches and inspires us in the ART of LOOK-ing. As in any ART, it becomes mastered by PRACTICE. The real ART of seeing is a inner action of merging and connection of the “see-er” with what is “seen”. It is a communion of sorts, a getting inside the qualities of what is being “LOOK-ed” at.

Beauty and truth are qualities of real ART. We want to LOOK at them here at “ART LOOK”. There are other fine qualities too, but those are two of the highest ones.

It is our sincerest wish to inspire and uplift you. If you feel PURE JOY, even for a second by LOOK-ing here at ART, then we consider our job worthy of the effort. And in that process of doing our job, we hope to inspire and uplift ourselves.

It is a journey we “take together” to the heart of our being. It is a true SERVICE. As Henry David Thoreau said, “The greatest service a man can do for his fellow men is to rise to the height of his own BEING.” So we want to rise to that height and bring you along with us.

At “ART LOOK”, this is our highest goal. We endeavor though ART to just LOOK at our real SELF….of TRUTH AND BEAUTY….and accept the remarkable BEING we are….WHO embodies these qualities and arrives at an immense inner JOY!

It is our conviction here at “ART LOOK” that even the common man and woman can gain more JOY of life by an exposure and sustained attention to ART. What we LOOK at affects our state of BEING. Watching a lot of junk on TV has dulled our minds and taken us further from who we are, further from JOY and HAPPINESS. LOOK-ing at ART gets us back to ourselves.

The great ART collector in Philadelphia, Albert C. Barnes, shut his whole factory down one day a week to uplift and educate his “employees” with classes in ART, in order for them to experience greater levels of well being through the LOOK-ing at ART.

Quite a noble act of SERVICE to humanity. It was his model of ART education, along with that of his friend, John Dewey, which is primarily instituted now in all the major art museums of the USA. Take “ART TO THE PEOPLE™”, was his creed.

We have a similar creed here at “ART LOOK”. One of my college ART professors said, “ART is for anybody, but not for everybody.” Why? Because the LOOK-er has to put something of himself into the LOOK-ing, with an open mind. Not “everybody” is willing to do that. Many people would rather watch TV and not reflect on what they are LOOK-ing at, and rather not put themselves “into” anything.

We endeavor to speak to the ones who have the “eyes to see” and who want ot put themselves into it. And also to those who may have a little “dust” in their eyes to clear vision, and need a little help in removing it. We intend for a good “ART LOOK” to do that.

We hope you keep coming back to LOOK and comment on our posts. You can also contact us at markus.ray@aol.com We are developing programs to bring “ART TO THE PEOPLE ™”. So if you have a group of more than 25 people who would like to hear a lecture on ART, let’s talk.

THANK YOU for exploring art with us here at “ART LOOK”.

MARKUS RAY, Founder and CEO of “ART LOOK”