CREATE, CHANGE, HEAL AND TEACH
By Gary Swanson
The creative mind wakes me up.
The electric charge that jump – starts my day begins with the synergy in
the arts and those who bundle imagination, concepts, feelings with
strong beliefs. Artists assemble these abstract concepts into forms then
work to nurture these creations to fruition. I want to be part of that
experience.
The artist has the power to entertain, to heal, and even to teach.
The mission is to mold these forms, torn from the chaos of the universe,
then, reshape that bounty into beautiful, films, paintings, novels, sonatas
with choreographed images and sounds that forever settled in the minds
of those privileged to witness a pirouette with music. Study Auguste
Rodin’s “The Thinker”, bent over, with his chin on his clinched fist,
forever contemplating the mystery of the human spirit, and that inert
sculpture challenges viewers to think, feel and examine our own lives.
These dreams of creation demand courage. Creating something from the
ether is one of the most daunting tasks known to man. But, to improve
the human condition, advancing life through art is the essence of life.
Bruce Springsteen, in the documentary, “From the Edge Of Night”, talks
about the empty stage before a concert. He said that before he and The E
Street Band step on to the stage – there is nothing there. Nothing. Empty
as an egg waiting for the seed to enter the sphere and create new life.
When they do step on the stage and start to play and sing, suddenly the
artists and the audience come to life. It is at that moment that the Art has
reached fruition through years of work as the music fills the stadium for
an experience that, for some, will leave them changed forever.
Springsteen’s music has that kind of artistic power.
Art has been working for us long before archaeologists discovered
scrawling images along the walls of caves. Many aspects of our
immediate lives are also showing signs of becoming redundant, noisy
and, in some circumstances, destructive. Our work as artists – at least
from my perspective – is as important, perhaps even more relevant than
the advancement of science, technology, theology or finance. I’m not
sure if the iPhone or the PC are preparing us to live better in the future.
Or are the millisecond needs created by these devices rolling us to a
frenetic leap into oblivion? Di Vinci, Franklin and Thomas Paine all
lived well into their eighties. They did well without cell phones and
computers. And they got a lot done.
Art forms are the veins that run throughout the body of history. Without
art, civilization would end with certainty. With art, there is a chance that
it will not end. I realize that this theory is vulnerable to rolling eyes and
shaking heads, but at what point does technology stop advancement and
start destruction? Oppenheimer and Teller wrote that they, themselves,
were afraid the Manhattan Project and their creation of the atom bomb
could become the commencement of the end of mankind. I’m not
denigrating the advancement of technology; cell phones, computers, HD
cameras, medical imaging machines are great tools. But that is all they
are. Some say we had better health care years ago when doctors did
exhaustive, detailed, personal work – ups on patients combining the
human being’s vigilance with a stethoscope’s augmentation of sound.
Tools are there to serve our advancement, not for our idolatry. After all,
truth told, I’m writing on a computer, using spell check and answering
questions with Google while my cell phone lays within hands reach. I
use them constantly – as tools.
Where are the great films or television dramas of today that explore who
we are and why we do what we do? The Kraft Television Theater or The
Hall Mark Hall of Fame, done live before millions of people in the 50’s
was partially responsible for this writer/actor/teacher’s passion and
hunger for that former quality of writing, driving great performances of
well-trained actors. The mystery of the human condition still trumps the
computerized car crash or Spider Man knitting himself from skyscraper
to the 59 th street Bridge. The results of these films disregard human
involvement, like a robot cooking show; the human gets to taste the
repetitive cuisine of a soulless chef. I’m afraid that lightening – speed
growth of technology, has overwhelmed us, our need to fight for the art,
the love of the labor to create.
Are we using our minds and spirits to see the truth? Is the news any
longer our focus when images are so HD sharp, we can almost notice the
blood shot eyes of the hung-over anchorwoman? Is the new opiate the
ugly horror of “The Jersey Shore” lowering our ideals, expectations and
standards until we all but lose our civilization? We only need to go back
to some of the great silent films starting with Louse Le Prince’s “Round
Hay Garden Scene” to “The Jazz Singer”, or Orson Wells’ great classic
“Citizen Kane” to confirm that there was always great film. “The
Honeymooners” are as funny and relevant today as they were when they
were shot live with black and white kinescope cameras on a sound stage,
the music of the human audience breathing, clapping and laughing as the
show unfolds validates in perpetuity the treasure left to us with the
human being using technology to advance our march into the future.
“The Honeymooners” has become a document of our existence shooting
far beyond Gleason’s dream of making people laugh. In 1974 Francis
Coppola wrote and directed “The Godfather” Masterpiece series when
an average computer would fit in a garage.
We may have become an impatient lot, unable to sit through edited shots
not longer than three seconds. But we still know when we can’t leap out
of our seats because a film or an O’Neal play, with well-trained actors,
quiets us with pleasure, transporting us by the beauty of art and the
exploration of the human condition.
The last five years of my summers have been my stumbling attempt to
capture on film the work of the artist, specifically the art of acting; to
continue to seed the ground for our work in theater and film, hopefully,
before the art is smothered by the dazzle and zing of mechanical
innovation and the corporate need to keep the masses paying them for an
abyss of flotsam and jetsam. I do not think I have yet to break the cold
ground with footage that will earth – shake the majority, but I feel
gratified that I’ve had actors struggle with who they are and what they
can give back to an audience from their chore, from the essential seat of
their powers. I have five years of compelling footage of that acting
process logged in…. Hard Drives!
This summer, The Montauk Group is continuing the struggle to create a
better world by inviting true artists to do what Ilia Kazan and Lee
Strasberg did for past generations. They taught, gave back and passed
the baton to those destined to break new ground for the future artists of
the world. I have invited successful directors, producers, writers, actors,
casting agents and musicians to participate throughout the winter and
into the spring. These artists have become leaders in the field. All are
invited to work with like-minded artists who would rather learn how to
dig for gold in a stream than drink beer on a Saturday sports bar while
yelling at a flat screen HD TV.
Gary Swanson