Artistic Intention

I saw a Facebook posting recently by Cincinnati dancer, Susan Moser:

"Controversy for the sake of controversy is weak art; controversy avoided for the sake of avoiding controversy makes for weak art. As artists we must decide whether to avoid or confront certain questions: How nervous should we make our audience? How provocative should we be? Should we invite people to examine the assumptions at the center of their lives?"

I am active on Facebook primarily because one must be active on Facebook today. It is work for me, but occasionally I am inspired or touched by this internet world of ours. This thoughtful quote resonated with me. I am frequently around artists of different mediums. Mostly musicians and artists are quite selfish- understandably so. We are constantly working on a medium that comes from ourselves: training our bodies for artistic marathons, perfecting our skills, and forcing our brains to focus on specialized materials. With our own myopic focus on our craft and being in an insular world of our own kind, it is easy to lose perspective on our artistic purpose and intention. Why we are doing what we do in the first place, and who is supporting the art with their time and dollars? My own feelings about making music through Catacoustic are that my fellow musicians and I should inspire each other and uplift the audience. Artists and musicians may have different motivations for doing their craft, but it is good to take a step back every now and then for perspective.