The Music of Art

Lines. Dots. Shape. Curve. Texture. Color.

Art combines beauty of form and emotional expression according to standards of rhythm, melody, and harmony.

Tears. Pain. Sorrow. Rejoice. Laugh.

Giving voice to a soul, art speaks louder than words.

Landscape. Figure. Abstract. Non-objective.

The simple line drawing and the complex compositions of mixed media belong to the same activity: art.

Start. Stop. Construct. Deconstruct. Adjust. Layer. Restart.

The process of art is best expressed as humanly engineered labors of love.

Purpose. Voice. Reason. Change. Reflections.

Art tells a story: the lyrical content is both conceptual and intellectual.

August is American Artist Appreciation month—and we have much to appreciate from the art of the Native Americans to the artists of the Hudson River School to the Abstract Expressionists who work mainly in the New York area to artists working in my home town of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I encourage you to take time today to let a piece of art speak to you through its own unique music. Or better yet, take time to sit with an artist and their artwork—listen, question, and understand.

—Guest columnist Carrie Leigh Dickey in RFI Magazine.