Art as an "Argo"

In a passage from The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life, Thomas Moore writes: “The Greeks told stories of the great ship Argo, which was made of special pine that could speak and give directions to its crew—the Argo is the great “Ship of Life” … This ship, the thing itself and not the persons on it, speaks to us, says the story.”

When I read that first line “made of pine that could speak and give directions to its crew”, it immediately brought to mind art-making as a practice. One of the functions that art takes within the human life is to serve as a vessel; it is a thing which is used to carry us from question to question, in essence helping us to navigate through life. Seen in this way art-making is a tool: used to process, to know oneself, to share a story, to make the inner world known.

As this practice and process delivers the artist to newer revelations it is necessary to keep an ear to it. One can’t endlessly make art, move forward, without intensively looking at what has been created, the purpose for which it was made, and the impulse that created it. Indeed, it seems that the themes and impulses that create a work early on may surface and reappear many times as an artist circles around a key question or conundrum. 

The process of making art carries the artist forward, and at the same time it delivers vital information about the self, about where one is at, about where one could dream oneself forward.

The vessel—the practice—delivers the crucial information that allows the maker to take the next step forward in the creative process and in the entire creative body of work.

The vessel—the practice—delivers the directions.