Art, although first and foremost a vehicle for involving us in aesthetic dimensions of experience, has many other functions and values, as well. An involvement with art can serve us personally and psychologically. Art has important social and educational roles to perform. In addition, art is essential to maintaining a healthy economy.

Enhancing the appearance of objects, whether they be utilitarian, recreational, religious and/or commemorative, is the most obvious and pervasive function of art. It would be hard to imagine a world devoid of art. Almost everything manufactured (as opposed to what is natural) that we see or use is, at least in part, the result of making choices and decisions that involve us in the aesthetic aspects of experience.

Although most manufactured or contrived objects and events would not be classified primarily as works of art, they are the result of humans deciding to make something appear to be, for instance, elegant, or comfortable, or high tech in appearance. In other words, an arrangement of visual elements -- shapes, colors, textures, etc. -- has been created for expressive purposes, which is one way to define art. Such objects range from cosmetics to autos, ski outfits to camping gear, prayer shawls to church altars, and from tomb stones to Rose Parade floats.

Objectifying thoughts and feelings

An important psychological function for art is to create an awareness of subjective reality because works of art reflect and give form to our inner thoughts and feelings, making them public and, therefore, perceivable and knowable. Works of art can offer cogent insights into a wide range of ideas, moods and passions derived from the repertoire of human experience. A compelling painting of a man carrying a basket of flowers is not merely a mirror image that denotes a particular activity. It may also connote a sense of the magnitude of the task and how such burdens must be endured when machines are not available.

Note the painting by the great Mexican artist, Diego Rivera. He makes known his feelings about the plight of individuals who must expend great effort to bring light-hearted pleasure to others. While ideas and feelings can be inferred by observing and identifying them in all types of phenomena, natural and manufactured, works of art offer focused opportunities to experience a vast range of thoughts and feelings. The Flower Carrier is an excellent example of the notion that works of art present to us portraits of feeling. By carefully observing this work, even though it is greatly reduced from its original 4' x 4' size, we are moved by the enormous task confronting the man represented.

Diego Rivera gives form to the compassion one may feel when contemplating the enormity of the burden this peasant must endure. This emotion is evoked not just by the scale of the huge basket, but also by making the basket highly textured while everything remains rather flat by comparison. Emphasis on the man's burden is also the result of the axis of the "X" created where the shawl crosses the man's back and the fact that the greatest value contrast occurs where the shadow of the basket meets the white of the man's clothing.