I would love to believe that art is immortal, that it can exist without context, and that by writing the perfect story or drawing the perfect picture I could solve all the world's problems. It is a fantasy. I'm an artist, but I dread the day when I will be nothing else.
I enjoy working with philosophy, art, and abstract mathematics. They're beautiful ways of analyzing the world, of seeing things in new ways, and of exploring our humanity. Too many artists forget this and pursue an imaginary artistic ideal for its own sake. Too many philosophers have left behind their humanity, thus leaving behind anything to philosophize about.

It's rather telling that I began this essay discussing the very things I criticize for their incompleteness. I look around, and so much humanity and so much nature is missing: We travel around in mechanical contraptions rather than exercise our own wholesome bodies. We grow fat on foods manufactured and designed for commercial gain rather than proper nourishment. We destroy each other with weapons that even we ourselves still have trouble imagining.
(I bicycle to school when I can, avoid fast food, and do what I can to stop war... and yet, I can only assume that there are countless other ways I fall into the same pattern, that I haven't even recognized.)
Our personal lives are limited by schedules handed down to us from authorities, some arguably legitimate, some less so. Some of us are legally compelled to attend grade school for six hours a day - sometimes stifling our creativity, sometimes providing relief from even worse parents. The rest of us live under the permanent demands of capitalism - the money must come from somewhere. Is it freedom, that we have the choice of which job to take, of which master to work under?

I've written stories about characters in great emotional pain. I've acted the parts of such characters. I'm nothing like them on the outside - it almost horrifies me how easily I identify with them. The primal instinct is there; this society's pervasive control only keeps it under the surface, and only most of the time.
When I think about all these problems, I wish to solve them, yet if there were easy solutions, would they not have been found already?
I recently went to a meeting of a student group dedicated to helping end the genocide in Darfur. They have been very effective in getting their message out, but what have all those people who now know about the issue done? Small donations help the cause, but I can't help but wonder whether raising awareness is a real solution in a society of people conditioned to think only about what makes them comfortable...

The show we are putting together in my Theatrical Ensemble class... maybe it will strike a chord with just a few people, and maybe they will think twice. Maybe they'll change just a little, and that's all that I, as an artist, can hope for.