Aesthetics in artistic creation
(Speech from the 2nd Photographic Convention held in Tinos - Greece, September 2003)

Art is a peculiar school, which idealizes human thought until it reaches the truth.
It can be a mean of psychological and intellectual approach as well as aesthetical enlightenment regarding values of beauty.
In a way, it may represent a language of a spiritual communication, which expresses emotions, raises good taste and evolves a spirit of noble emulation for a supreme society.
Man in an attempt to investigate the dark universe -which is an eternal problem- uses two, formerly tested, cultural values: science and philosophy.
In every step of science's research, several methods are being disproved and techniques are being replaced until it reaches the desired result.
On the contrary, philosophy treats qualities of an idealistic character, which without any conflict add more knowledge to older experiences for a new struggle for the endless fight of life.

Art is considered to be an extension of philosophy which expresses its deliberations using artistic symbols of an idealistic character, that on their part, reflect on feeling and form a spiritual bondage between people and artist.
It is well known the fact that any time a civilization of various earth populations reached a peak of spiritual and creational growth it always left behind enviable proofs of artistic facture and, as has been observed, on these same principles this development depended.
Art is overstepping reality; is a vivid shaping of visions and psychic stimulus, which is taken by the artist's imagination and processed by his thoughts.
Special intellectual sensitivity is needed for the approaching of a work of art in order to understand the whole creation as artistic expression.
A work of art could more fairly be valued as a notional element and could more deeply move if presented by other art and could dynamically aggravate the spectator's psychological world.

For an image to have distinguishable characteristics of artistic values, its subject should present aesthetic messages as well as philosophic thoughts with references to the problems of life which derive from the artist's experiences.
If the subject that presents an image may move emotionally in order to become spur as well as a song by a poet in other words to become another form of art, this means that the structure of the image has aesthetic features.
An illustrative example is the story of Giannis Ritsos who in order to write the Epitaph, was stimulated by the subject of a photograph which represents the tragic figure of a mother bent over the corpse of her murdered child, a victim of the authorities, after a riot in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Artistic creation is contained in everything, in every aspect of a human's social activity.
Art is the language of our senses, which gives us the ability to externalize and form our emotions, which came from our sensitive psychic world, with different forms of artistic expression such as picture, words and music in a more symbolic way and emotional quality.
With art we can express things and ideas that with the common language that we speak, which is naturally too poor, is not possible to define such deep psychical emotions.

Fine arts unsealed new doors of artistic creation that are for many people incomprehensible and unrealistic both for the formation of ideas as for expressing ones feelings; thereupon works of art become obscure or demand special knowledge and education so as to interpret or notionally approach them.
The beauty of a work of art is one of the most glamorous things which gives out the charm of life and provide aesthetic content to humans.
For that reason art must be the privilege of every human and not granted only to a few.
With such conditions art ceases its instructive character that perhaps should be its main mission.
Beautiful is something that one likes and corresponds to his personal taste according to his idiosyncrasy, his general culture and his perceptions for the values of life, in connection with the times and the environment in which he was raised, lived and worked in.
As regards the aesthetic organization and artistic practice, there are no coded laws and rules which function with clarity in order to determine the special characteristics of each work of art but there should be absolute freedom as for the assessment and admission of what is beautiful or what meets all the conditions of artistic fulfillment.
Art directly affects the development of artistic taste and has also effects in many activities of our social life.
The forming of good taste is even related to our social behavior, the way we dress ourselves or have fun, the way we built and furnish our houses in order to house ourselves and imprison our dreams.
However this lack of restraint in the diversity of works of art, many times forces us to accept things that we do not understand (as the work of modern artists) which are presented to be of great artistic value but do not apply to our personal perceptions regarding art and aesthetics.

Many times, despite our doubts, we accept certain obscure artistic constructions manufactures that are presented to be of great importance only in order not to appear uninformed as regards the new artistic tendencies, which are presented by the market of criticism that sets the trends and shapes the commercialization of art.
By planning the aesthetic analysis we try to point out not what we like but why we like it. We search for those elements that differentiate the common and uninspired with the intention of giving it esthetic quality and value so as to transform it into a work of art.
The feeling of beauty differs from one human to another and from one race to another. This even happens to certain animals and birds.
A peacock that proudly presents its feathers is surely proud that it demonstrates something beautiful in order to admire it.
Since the ancient times we tried to code laws and principles, but despite any occasional observations, special studies and meditative thoughts regarding cultural values, until now neither practical thoughts nor philosophical knowledge managed to form one single definition that would analyze with laws and rules the natural and technical constitution of beauty in art and life.
Practically with the aesthetic approach we seek the natural traits and the moral values that shape good taste of human senses and even its favorable reactions in the historical course of populations and cultures, in their external course of the passing of times.
Beauty and ugliness coexist in life and only humans can differentiate the relation between them by their own sense of quality and value of beautiful thus catalytically affecting artistic practice.

There still exists the cultural level of times that shapes the sense of good taste in a person and makes life more attractive.
Each race, population and human have their own perceptions of estimating and attributing beauty, this springs out from the education, esthetic culture and socio-economic conditions of space and environment in which we are raised in and live.
The widespread taste in human conscience is shaped by general education and culture of tastefulness.
These are the qualities which meet in the forms and the notional contents of works of art as artistic creations with philosophical extensions.
Works of art utter also philosophical symbolisms expressed by the creators of that function intellectually, with laws of perceptive psychology.
In order for the artist to attribute an aesthetic style to his work, with the intention to make it more attractive for the sight of the spectator, he tries technically to counterbalance changeful forces among real and ideal, so as to set the desirable esthetic values together with the formation of natural elements and form his ideas into a picture.
Each idea received by the imagination and processed by the mental world of the creator is transubstantiated entirely into a work of art as long as it is permissible by the material or the technical skills of the artist.
What Andrei Tarkofsky said is: "genuine art not only expresses, but also confirms every virtue that exists in a person: love, hope, beauty".
On such principles was based for many centuries the academic painting interpreting nature and life.
A real artist forms reality according to his personal visions, his emotions and his creative style.
A genuine artist is the prisoner of his talent and is chained by his fate so as to serve by his works art and people.
It is his moral and social duty to thoughtfully bend over his fellowmen as well his problems and give to his work special sensitivity and the power of art, the chance to repay nature's grace so as to endower him with unique feelings of sensibility and make him an artist.

Costas Balafas