Truth

When viewing a work of art, or listening to one, can we see truth? Can we feel it?

If we examine an individuals understanding of the word truth, we can be surprised as how different another person can perceive it as. It is a word that probably has a connotation far more disconnected from what it is capable of. The truth can destroy; it’s really not all it’s made out to be. In simple words I can allude to a situation many of us have been in. Although we may see truth as something that has the fixed association to “good” and “just”, let’s face it, it is unbearable to hear. For some reason the truth is something that many of us cannot bear to hear. The reason? Illusion vs. reality. This struggle been the dominating factor in countless plays, plot lines, and works of art. There is always a conflict between these two forces, and in the end understanding the two existing ubiquitously is far more difficult than accepting one at a time. A reality can be the illusion of one person, and just as well be the vice-versa of another. It is rather paradoxical as we go even deeper into examining the verity of an illusion or the verity of a reality. Feeling “truth” in a work is even a harder concept to understand. It is a notion that fascinates me and perturbs the mind. I always wonder whether the artist feels the same way about a work years later. How “true” can the work feel days, months and years later. At any one moment we may feel more strongly about something than years in the future. Truth is also affected by how much he/she knows at the given moment of their creating their work of art. Whether it be in form of music or visuals, an artist expressing him/herself can easily shift their way of thinking with time. In the end I wonder how true truth is.