A Bias Perspective

“To study the life of an artist is to study that which they have not mastered.” This is the one topic that completely intrigued me this week. It was brought to the attention of the class that as members of The Church of Jesus Christ we search out virtuous things and that if god had inspired the great artist such as Mozart and Picasso why is it that they lived such scandalous lives? Why would god inspire people who didn’t know who he was? This led to a rather heated debate about how it was not our place to judge. It isn’t even in god’s nature to condemn men while they are on earth. Thus, we are in no position to judge but only to look upon their works as a way to better ourselves spiritually and intellectually.  Art isn’t meant to be judge by the man or women who created by it. Oh no, that defeats the purpose of the thing entirely. Why is it then that we are all victims of this insanity?

            Biases, my friends, are the devils behind our ignorance. It is true. By identifying the biases of our youth we discover the silliest of things we believe with our whole soul to be incorrect. I, myself fell victim to the harsh judgments given while listening to the argument about the fact that these men and women were not what we believe are a people who lives in a state of moral correctness.  I will blame the biases set up in my life till the day I die, honestly. Before this heated debate I believed with my whole being that to truly understand a piece of art, whether in music, art, or literature, you must also have a great knowledge of the artist behind it. While I still believe that this is true in the sense that it is easier to understand for example the story of Farewell to Arms written by Ernest Hemingway when you understand that Hemingway had a similar experience in his own life, I now see that if you stress over every little thing they did wrong you lose the purpose of the work all together. As I said before, to look only look at the artist and not the art you miss the meaning.

            This was so profound to me. It makes so much sense. We are told to not judge one another, so why would we judge those who are pasted away? They have done so much good, and they have influenced so many great things. The men who wrote the constitution weren’t living moral lives, but look at what they created. It is our duty and our privilege to not judge but to be open to enlightenment.  We must be open to all that the art has to offer. In doing this we will become greater in our understanding of ourselves. God enlightens those open to enlightenment. It’s our choice if we are ready. When the choice come between the life and the art choose the art.