While watching the movie "Nine", I was not very impressed with the sheer amount of sluttly, scantily clad women and the image they portrayed of all women in general. However, as the movie progressed and the complaints of my movie partner increased I began to see the movie as a journey of the writer. To anyone but a writer, the movie is “weird” and “boring.”
The end product, which was the movie, could not have come to existance had the writer not transformed his life into art.
“My life is art.”
The fact that the man writes and directs beautiful films does not make him any less of a cheating bastard. However, his work is for sell not his personal life. Is the art less beautiful if it comes from an individual who is openly promiscuous, damaged, addicted, etc? Would the fact that something worth reveling in came from a less than perfect person make it more valuable? Does a flaw in the artist in turn flaw the art? But who isn’t flawed? We are all real fucked up. Some of us just hide it better than others. That is an art in itself.
So where is the value and integrity of the art? Within the creator or the finished product? I value Bob Marley, John Mayer, Andy Warhol, and Billie Holiday’s art. Their openly questionable lifestyles do not make their abilities any less wonderful and the art that came from these people touches a place within people around the world. So, love the art not the artist.
Art: love. passion. pain. sex. emotion. purity. sin. Heaven. God. Epiphany. Darkness. Revolution. Life embodied.
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You seem to assume that there is some antagonistic relationship between artists and their art. I mean, sure, that seems true in tabloids, 24 hour news, and stuff; but I doubt that the dualism is that big of a deal. Now let's go a dimension deeper: The "artists" you cite are themselves art--divine art. Being made in the image of God, makes us all art. But in this instance we would be remiss to not love the Artist. Maybe the same holds true for your argument here.
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