Art is essential something that challenges us, or moves us in some way.
Emotionally, intellectually or spiritually it’s something that stirs us personally.
Art is not simply aesthetic or decorative in nature so much as provocative.
It’s about rattling our sensory cage and inducing a reaction. This reaction is not always a conscious one and may have less to do with intellect than with our emotion. Above all, art is about emotional honesty.
The Italian film director Federico Fellini once said: ‘All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster’s autobiography’.
Art is a process of revealing ourselves to the world. While this disclosure may be private in nature, it can also expose things common to all humans.
For this reason, good art is both individual and collective at the same time.
Art also comprises the last three letters of the word ‘fart’, which is what it
becomes when we over-intellectualise it. This reduces art to a concept that
requires explaining via a convoluted language.
Post-modern language is often used to compensate for the paucity of an art work, because institutional art judges its students primarily on their academic ability, rather than their artistic merit.
Expressing emotion does not earn points in this system, while speaking
plainly is uncool.
Intellect without emotional candour is like a dental surgery, like something technically impressive, yet cold and somewhat empty.
For something to truly speak to us, it has to come from the heart.
R J Poole, Lismore
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
