Art, a Seed of Hope

First of all, let these words of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (1970 Nobel Lecture) inspire you.

So perhaps that ancient trinity of Truth, Goodness and Beauty is not simply an empty, faded formula as we thought in the days of our self-confident, materialistic youth? If the tops of these three trees converge, as the scholars maintained, but the too blatant, too direct stems of Truth and Goodness are crushed, cut down, not allowed through – then perhaps the fantastic, unpredictable, unexpected stems of Beauty will push through and soar to that very same place, and in so doing will fulfill the work of all three…

And the simple step of a simple courageous man is not to partake in falsehood, not to support false actions! Let that enter the world, let it even reign in the world – but not with my help. But writers and artists can achieve more: they can CONQUER FALSEHOOD! In the struggle with falsehood art always did win and it always does win! Openly, irrefutably for everyone! Falsehood can hold out against much in this world, but not against art.

Full lecture here. It is worth your time.

There are many out in the wide world whose hearts resonate with these words. Here are two such examples:

Make Art Like You Care blog courtesy of Todd Drake. Click on his art below to see his personal site.

The Groundswell Collective’s blog about arts and activism: