Scott Barmby Scott@wickedladybug.

com
Graphic Designer www.wickedladybug.com

Blurring Differences, Sharing Art

Long gone are the days where kings, queens, and members of the aristocracy
commissioned fantastically complex works of art for the purpose of propagating religious sentiment.
Many of these works are in our museums and are revered for their technical achievements. They
are in many ways beautiful though this type of art had it’s place; fluorescing in a time filled with
over reaching control upon the masses. With this system there was only so much room to grow
and progress and the art world was slow to change. Since the spreading of democratic systems
of government, based on individual freedoms, art has exponentially moved and changed into a
world allowing ultra-individualism. This allows for a synthesis of creativity to flourish. No doubt
with this freedom, all types of ideas from all walks of life have had the opportunity to seep into each
others’ culture and now with mass communication at everyone’s fingertips this spreading of ideas is
faster and smoother then ever before. Race, class, and ethnicity influences contemporary art, helps
perpetuate multiculturalism, and sharing is the vehicle for which art prospers.
Before one can show how art has been influenced it is important to know some of the
criteria used in evaluating it. Art is a large part of our everyday lives; so much that we never stop
to think about it. Look at the desk or table you are sitting in; someone designed it, and it is art. In
fact, your shoes are art and your coffee cup is art. Art has both a function and a sense of aesthetics.
Art is in a constant state of change and it is very difficult to create a line of demarcation of where it
ends. That being said, many have come to the general consensus that art is comprised of two main
elements, form and content. Form is technical. It is the various visual tools used to create an image;
value, color, space and line. These elements can be used to define all works of art globally no matter
who created it and where. The second part is content. This is the subjective aspect of art. It is based
on what the artist meant to portray, what they actually portrayed, and how we as individuals see the
work of art. Content also includes ways in which the artwork was influenced by region, politics, or
society in general. All of these factors comprise the content.
Both form and content can be associated with a specific race, ethnic or class group. For
example, Edo period Japanese prints, or Ukiyo-e have a specific form to them comprised of specific
aesthetic elements that define the style; thin beautiful lines on a flat plane of existence. The content of
these prints at the time of their inception were generally scenes of warriors in battle or men fighting
the tortuousness of the vast ocean.

In the Hollow of a Wave off the Coast at Kanagawa

By Hokusai. 1760-1849.

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 Scott Barmby Scott@wickedladybug.com
Graphic Designer www.wickedladybug.com

Storm By Will Barras. 2008.

In comparison, Will Barras, founder of Scrawl Collective and urban artist that exhibits all over the
world who was formally trained in graphic design in Bristol, United Kingdom, did not grow up in
the same cultural world of those from Edo Japan. He is not Japanese, and was raised in a world of
popular western culture. But surprisingly the content and basic composition of his art work Storm is
almost identical to that of In the Hollow of a Wave off the Coast at Kanagawa. Certainly the formal
qualities have changed but the imagery created over 100 years ago permeates the human mind and
exhibits itself in contemporary urban art. These two images are not an enigma; similarities between
differing cultures’ art are prevalent and in many ways intrinsic to the very process of creating.
It seems obvious that art influences art; though it is an altogether a different question if
art perpetuates multiculturalism. Many have said that art is the highest form of communication; it
is unbound by language. For example, one does not need to understand the Spanish word for fear
when viewing Francisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring one of his Children; it communicates that directly
into your soul. American Philosopher and Psychiatrist John Dewy said in his book Art as Experience
“barriers are dissolved, limiting prejudices melt away, when we enter into the spirit of Negro or
Polynesian art. This insensible melting is far more efficacious than the change effected by reasoning,
because it enters directly into attitude” (p. 331). The words Dewy used in his theories of art are not
considered politically correct by todays standards though his ideas on the psychology of art and
aesthetics are generally accepted by todays scholars. It is clear that art can communicate between
cultures but it also brings openness to others’ way of life, a necessity for multiculturalism to exist. In
the article Fostering Positive Ethnic Relations Between African American and Latino Children: A
Collaborative Urban Program Using Art and History by Bárbara C. Cruz and Paulette C. Walker of
the University of South Florida write about a new program that focuses on the immersion of students
in art and history to help spur student interest in other cultures and increase positive associations
of other racial groups and cultures. The program creators selected a test area in a highly African
American and Latino population. Each week students would learn about a specific topic, for example
one week students would look at and learn about traditional African mask making then have a follow
up activity where they would make their own masks. In addition to in class activities, each week
students would be taken on a field trip pertaining to the lesson learned in class for example: after
making masks the student would be taken to the Museum of African American Art. In each project
students were encouraged to collaborate with other students and for each activity the students would

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 Scott Barmby Scott@wickedladybug.com
Graphic Designer www.wickedladybug.com

have to pick a different group member in effect requiring them to interact with students of different
cultures. After the program trial period the students were given exit interviews related to ethnicity.
The end result found the students to have positive views about their interactions with students of
other cultures (p. 10-11). It is absolutely evident that art communicates to other cultures and through
that communication true understanding of others occurs and perpetuates multiculturalism.
The way in which art permeates human existence is extraordinary, it moves us and helps
us understand each others perspective in a way no quantitative data could ever show. Each work
of art is a node embodying a specific picture into one’s thoughts and the interconnected nodes that
accumulate are in essence the story of humanity. In the past, the sharing of these nodes was a slow
progression. One could not learn about another cultures if there was no access to it, but even in the
rare instances when intercultural communication took place it did not seem to change their school of
thought. In the article by NOE¨ L CARROLL Art and Globalization: Then and Now, Carroll stated that
in the past different cultures had their own distinct art, each cultures artwork was separated by their
traditions of creating, and the way in which they articulated and interpreted it; when these distinct
traditions met each other and influenced each other, their genealogies and canons stayed separate
(p. 144-142). This is because of the plodding pace at which ideas moved. As technology grew man
learned to sail the seas, globalization took hold and everything from that point on focused on
expansion. As more time progressed the need for communication with each other became more and
more of a necessity. This brought the telegraph then the phone and now in todays society the internet.
In the article Studying Social Transformation by Stephen Castles he writes about the rapid growth
in social transformation in the past quarter of a century. Casteles points out that through this rapid
growth the lines between economic and cultural dichotomies are blurring and that it is becoming
increasingly difficult to think locally without also thinking globally (p. 13). This illustrates the meshing
of ideas throughout the world and signifies technological achievements in communication as a
vehicle for sharing and disseminating ideas. When we see an artwork that speaks to us it influences
our mind. It creates an imprint that is saved in our memory forever. On a daily basis we take the
information, thoughts and ideas stored in our mind and mesh them together to define how we
perceive the world and come to assumptions as to how we believe the world should work. This
event is not mutually exclusive to art, though there is no such form of knowledge that permeates
the human mind and speaks directly to our emotional sensibility as much as art does. For example
if one individual likes Monet and another person likes Monet the odds of them killing each other is
much more unlikely. It helps us understand each other, brings us closer, and blurs the lines of our
differences while illustrating our core similarities as humans. The vehicle for sharing our experiences
and ideas are in constant flux but the general trend is one of ever increasing speed. Currently it is
the internet and social networking, tomorrow is unknown. But one thing that will never change is
mans never ending pursuit to share creativity and traditions with others.

Create With Passion, Live With Love. 3

 Scott Barmby Scott@wickedladybug.com
Graphic Designer www.wickedladybug.com

References

Hokusai, Katsushika, (Artist). (1830–1832). The Great Wave at Kanagawa [Image of Painting].
New York, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved October 24, 2010, from http://
www.metmuseum.org

Barras, Will, (Artist). Storm [Image of Painting]. The Street Art Book: 60 Artists in their Own
Words. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008, p. 79

Goya y Lucientes, Francisco, (Artist). (1821-1823). Saturn Devouring one of his Children
[Image of painting]. Madrid, Spain; Museo del Prad. Retrieved October 24, 2010, from http://www.
museodelprado.es

Dewey, John. (1958). Art as Experience. New York, NY: Capricorn Books

Cruz, B. , & Walker, P. (2001). Fostering positive ethnic relations between african american and
latino children: A collaborative urban program using art and history. Multicultural Perspectives,
3(1), 9-14.

Carroll, N. (2007), Art and Globalization: Then and Now. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art
Criticism, 65: 131–143. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-594X.2007.00244.x

Castles, S. (2001). Studying social transformation. International Political Science Review /

Revue Internationale De Science Politique, 22(1), 13-32.

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