Art is Magic – Alan Moore

Art is Magic – Alan Moore

Cerri showed me this piece and I posted a link to it on my Facebook page but I think it’s so good that I’m going to blog it too.

This piece is dark, and honest, as Alan Moore speaks his truth directly with no frills or fluffy language, and to me it sums up how I feel about Art and it’s relationship with Magic. To me the Bardic Path is a magical and Shamanistic tradition and an artist, be that a musician, writer, painter, sculptor, like the skilled storyteller, can change consciousness and guide us through Other Worlds. See what you think.

9 responses to “Art is Magic – Alan Moore”

  1. Wonderful & Thought Provoking!
    The lines between the Worlds are always Hazy;
    BUT, to switch One’s view to the Inner Vision…
    Well, let’s just say Clarity becomes Subjective!

  2. Wow. I love the perspective Mr. Moore put on Art. I have loved to create art in all it’s forms even before I labled myself as Pagan. I love to sing, write, draw, paint,s sculpt, make candles and jewelry. I always felt like I was making something more than just something to be admired. Not that I am the best at all those things above either, but I loved the act of creating, the act of making that magic. On the other side of the coin, I love looking at art, and I love listening to music. Even though I love Art in all it’s forms, I am most passionate about music. I recognize the things that art can make us feel. I know the deep part of our soul that music touches. A single song can call up a myriad of emotions. Music can spark instant memories, weather they are good or bad ones. Music can take us on amazing journeys around the globe. If that’s not magic, then I don’t know what you would call it.

    Blessings,
    ~Kelly

  3. A remarkable video – and it’s worth watching the entire documentary (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvcPVxzhTLQ)

    “On my 40th birthday, rather than merely bore my friends by having anything as mundane as a mid-life crisis, I decided it might be more interesting to actually terrify them, by going completely mad and declaring myself as a magician…”

    With those words, renowned English comic book author Alan Moore begins a remarkable lecture on the meaning of “magic”, its relationship to art, how language has the power to destroy people or change the world, how artists have allowed themselves to be diminished to become merely entertainers, how religion steps between Man and God, how science has missed the point, how Information is a more important force than gravity, about the nature of time, how society is turning into steam and how the world is accelerating toward the Apocalypse … and how this is a good thing that should be a lot of fun.

    I don’t agree with everything he says, but he makes sense on several scores and certainly serves up lots of food for thought – including the date for the end of the world as we know it: 2015.

    This video isn’t new – but it is new to YouTube. It was actually made in 2003. Interesting that then Moore talked about the acceleration of information leading to society becoming like vapour, and now the Next Big Thing is cloud computing, where all our information will be stored not on our own hard discs but “in the cloud”, off-site. Not sure that’s what AM had in mind, but it is strange!

  4. Wow, I was blown away by this piece. And completely agree with his sentiment that magic has degenerated down to manipulation & entertainment. Today, “magic” is in the form of technology and it is false magic. I also agree with his concept of present day writers. Again, present
    day = text speak and is not conducive to shamanic or magical change. It doesn’t even come close.

    I am of the “old school” and a writer/poet myself. What is happening (for the most part) today does not generate change and ideas and spiritual growth, it is a form of herding to group everyone together in the same pen, so we can more easily be watched and controlled.

    I know, I know…..I was called a radical just yesterday for my views, but I believe in what I see and feel.

    I also loved what he said about artists vs. audience. This is where you come in Damh. Because you do give the audience exactly what it needs. Each and every piece you do takes one on a different journey, from the joy of Song of Awen to the dismal realization of Merlin Am I…and there are so many more I could mention. But…your point is taken!

    There, again, this story teller rambles on!
    Blessings!

  5. This guy has it right. Since time immemorial I’ve been telling the musical ensembles I direct that getting all the notes right is just a cheap stunt, a “look ma, no hands” kind of achievement. Notes are merely a scaffold on which we hang the magic that is true music. The music is 100% in the magic. If there’s no magic, there’s no music.

    The magic is the human feeling within our souls that we communicate to others’ souls through our music. If we fail to fully express our hearts and souls in the performance of music, we fail to communicate the transformational magic in heartfelt human communication and the result is lifeless entertainment…even at its best with all the sizzle, sparkle, and excitement, but no real music.

    The magic is the exclusive difference between true art and impressing others with whatever technique we exhibit in our craft and/or merely creating some excitement that allows us to escape from ourselves and our lives rather than finding fulfillment and profound transformation in our human awareness. The magic resides in the breadth and depth of human consciousness and that is what must embed itself in our craft to make it art.

    We cannot give to anyone listening to our music what we do not have inside. If we wish to communicate beauty, we must find that beauty within ourselves. True artists are transformed by their performance and this transformation has the lovely property of deeply penetrating the hearts of those ready to truly listen.

  6. Wondeful…being a sculptor of stone I understand all he says. It is magic and sculpting only works if the magic is there otherwise the piece doesn’t work, it is dead.
    That is why contemporary work like conceptual shit has no soul, that is dead art the reflects the dead soul of our media sodden world today.
    I mean…look at Kapor’s piece for the Olympics..???

  7. This video articulated much that I’ve never been able to put into words. The closest I’ve ever come was reading “The White Goddess” by Graves. Slightly different thrust, of course, but still…the power of words. “Neon magicians” from your song. Wow.

  8. Having drawn, animated, and now, learning with my spirit horse to drum, I would definitely say that art is one of the best examples of magic. You can take people places with a brushstroke, transport them into the Otherworld with a few notes, or show them the landscape’s holiness, as in the recent video you posted.

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