What Are the Arts? A Hollywood Standard

After spending more than my self-allotted time on Facebook today, the running theme was the Meryl Streep speech. This blog is not a political debate and I will not go into politics. However, I will discuss “arts.” Ms. Streep made a rather bold comment that has sent MMA fighters globally into an uproar, whether her intention or not.

Per Ms. Streep, “So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick them all out you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.”

The question now begging to be answered is: What are the arts? Are the arts only limited to those on stage or in productions? Have we lost sight of what the arts are? Have the arts  evolved or devolved?

According to Oxford, art can be defined as 1) the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. 2) (the arts) the various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, literature, and dance. 3) a skill at doing a specified thing, typically one acquired through practice.

I would consider definition #2 to include artists, writers, poets, sculptors, singers/song writers, and dancers. In there I would add acting as well, as this is a dominant basis to portray stories through creative activity. That would be my opinion. Using the given Oxford definition then, Mixed Martial Arts, football, even culinary chefs would fall into definition #3, as they have honed into a special skill acquired through practice. This can also absorb definition #2, as a writer works at his skill acquired through practice: the art of writing. Similarly,  the art of song writing, the art of basket weaving, the art of sculpting, the art of dance, the art of fighting, heck even the art of war.

So here is my kick: as definition #2 (the arts) can easily dip into definition #3 (acquired skill), can acquired skill also be considered the arts? The definitions are so broad. Have you ever watched Tai Chi? The slow and fluid motions are almost poetic in nature and mesmerizing to watch. Would Tai Chi not be a creative activity defined as the arts? Again, the definition is quite broad and could not encompass every example of the arts, but instead gave the more prominent ones.

Glass blowing: the arts or an acquired skill; the art of glass blowing? Tai Chi versus MMA; is there a difference?

Definitions give to evolution in an ever changing world, but are the definitions variant through the eyes of the beholder?  A husband and wife go to an art museum. The wife is in awe of the sculptures and paintings, to her that is art. They walk into the next museum, an air and space museum, and the husband sees the curves, the mass, the depth of an old WWII fighter plane and says that is true art. Which one is wrong? Are they both correct? Couldn’t building a plane be considered a creative art? I’m sure the Wright Brothers would love to hear that argument.

My blog today was not to bash or trash, and definitely not to make a political statement, but rather to entice people to open their minds as to what is art and what are the arts. Are only the beautiful aspects to be considered art such as Tai Chi versus MMA? Are some form of the arts higher up on the evolutionary art ladder than others: slam poetry versus Hollywood movies? Is it art to portray a fighter in a movie but not to be a fighter? Is it art to portray a fighter pilot in war but not to be a fighter pilot in war?

Have we evolved or devolved our definition of the arts over time? And if all of Hollywood disappeared today, would the arts disappear with it?

I would love to hear your “non-political” input on what you consider to be the arts, or on Ms. Streep’s thoughts that without Hollywood there would be nothing left but football and MMA. Maybe the world could read the book instead of watching the film adaptation, but I’m a writer; I can dream.

Tania L Ramos, RN BSN & Author of the arts

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Welcoming Myself Back and other shameless updates

So….where have I been? Working diligently to regain control of my WordPress site. I have no clue what happened, but for almost a month I have been locked out of my account. The short version: my password was changed and so was my email address. I’d like to think I was so flamboyantly popular that some stalker hacker stole my account to have just a little piece of the Tania L Ramos fame if only for a brief shining moment.  But, alas, this is probably not the case. It smells more of the workings of some snot nosed hacker who does it for malicious self-gratifying fun than admiration of raw talent. Hehe. I still crack myself up. And continue to dream of the day my adoring fans would try to hack my account…ah.

Well, I have been doing well. Currently working two nursing positions which occupy my every waking hour and often times interferes with my sleeping ones too.  I had a dream that I lost a patient and had to find him before I was reported, but I only ended in some psycho shower scene being chased by an unseen monster that stole my clothes, and all of a sudden I’m stark naked in the middle of a fair wondering where the heck my patient could be and suddenly surrounded by middle school classmates who don’t seem to mind my nudeness.  Then my alarm goes off and i’m like, “Seriously? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure I was working in my sleep.!”

Beyond that, I have finished a book that was written to aid indie authors in writing elements. Not the typical place a comma here and period goes there.  This is more meat and potatoes stuff.  The things the editors pick on more than elementary school grammar.  You see, grammar is a quick and easy fix, but poorly written content can mean literary suicide.  I’ve been on the lashing end and did my research, so I thought it only fit to share.  We aren’t sure the title yet, but we’ve been playing with, “How to Survive the Writing Apocalypse: a 21st Century guide to content editing.” It’s a title in progress, but we do have an awesome cover art idea in mind.

What is with the “we” business, I mentioned above? I have a publicist now.  Yep. There are indie movies, indie rock, indie books and now an indie publicist. That means he didn’t spend eight years acquiring an MFA, but he gets around and makes noise.  Blackbird_LSD is a new company of editors with publicity on their agendas. Things like showing books at local fairs for those authors who can not attend (author by proxy?). Plus much more. They are getting their feet off the ground and I’m in on the bottom level.  Good or bad? Remember that publicity is publicity and we all start somewhere. So this team is just starting, but I think they’ll do great with the ideas they have.

I have a busy October.  My biggest event, and the one I have been focused on, is the speaking event at the Victorville Library 10/17/12 at 6pm (should you want to stop by my fair high desert community). I was told not to expect a crowd because they never do well, but for me that is a challenge. So “we” brainstormed to try and find a way to make this a smashing success.  The answer: give away a book to the middle and high school libraries who have faculty and students in attendance from the community.  Blackbird_LSD handled the task of emailing every art, drama, english, and language teaching in the area.  We have also been  blasting this in Twitter and my Facebook page.  Next, they will alert the press.  My goal is to send out at least 10 books to surrounding schools.  We also decided that instead of just talking about, “Be Still,” my book, that I would instead talk about pursuing dreams, writing, and the road to becoming published.  I want to inspire young authors.  This is my chance.

So that is my current life in a nutshell.  Should I remain hack free, I will try and update at least twice a week.  See you on the shelves.