The Key West Citizen

Art-Conscious And Unconscious

The aesthetic sense is like a deep river flowing with varying degrees of awareness through that portion of the mind marked unknown.

"Give us this day our daily bread," we pray and then hurry into the work-a-day world to slice our share of "bread." Our mental muscles are flexed mightily to accomplish the daily necessities of living and in so doing we sometimes forget that "we live not by bread alone."

Just as an athlete trains his body for the sport in which he hopes to excel, so must the aesthetic powers be exercised and brought to flower.

"Unconscious," in this respect, is defined meaningfully as an "organization of the mind which, although it contains all the psychic material necessary, is not in the immediate state of awareness."

The society in which we live today is not, on the whole, conducive to providing an easy way to the level of conscious appreciation for the art forms.

Art forms relate, one to another, comparable to nature's balance of give and take. The artist takes fire from a thrilling bar of music or a passage of inspired writing. The composer of music or the written word deeply appreciates creative works in paint and sculpture.

These people, who daily strive to create, have naturally developed their aesthetic sense to a high degree through constant exposure. They are highly "conscious."

Those of us who have not the skill to create, move about on a scale ranging in degrees of consciousness and unconsciousness.

The word exposure describes very well our place on the sliding scale. As we must expose our skin to the sun for an apricot tan, so must we consciously expose our eyes and ears to the things that man creates from his inner mind.

In each community we find a segment of people who work directly or indirectly to develop art consciousness.

Here in our own charmingly cultured city of Key West we have recently become aware that little by little this charm can slowly slip away.

Any community worth its salt is not content to stagnate with works accomplished in the past or with new works in which it has no part to play. We must strive to combine the old with the new and present the two together as a bright and shining fact of vital accomplishment.

At this writing, not only to preserve our old world culture, but to provide through its preservation an outlet for creative work from a permanently established art center.

An art center composed of a group of working artists adds immeasurably to the stature of a town. We have seen in many ways the contributions our artists have made at the Barn Theatre, in various shows put on by our civic and Navy organizations and through the annual flower shows.

The Barn theatre is an admirable example of a talented group working to contribute to the culture of Key West.

Artists, actors, musicians and the like ask very little in return for their efforts. Usually it takes the form of a place in which to display their talents and some measure of appreciation for their gifts.

In a forest of many economic considerations, we find that the tree of art continues to flourish anywhere that its roots can find a well-spring of art-conscious people.