Art is Part of Survival

EarthSong115Here is an amazing quote about the meaning of art:

“…even from the concentration camps, we have poetry, we have music, we have visual art; it wasn’t just this one fanatic…many, many people created art. Why? Well, in a place where people are only focused on survival, on the bare necessities, the obvious conclusion is that art must be, somehow, essential for life. The camps were without money, without hope, without commerce, without recreation, without basic respect, but they were not without art. Art is part of survival: art is part of the human spirit, an unquenchable expression of who we are. Art is one of the ways in which we say, “I am alive, and my life has meaning.”

Karl Paulnak (thanks to Fr. Ivan Moody)