Throughout history art has played many roles in terms of emotion and happiness. I think if I had one word to describe art it would be happiness. Not all art is necessarily happy, but in context in can make any individual happy. I want to focus on art that brings me a feeling of happiness and overall a feeling of positive emotion when listening to or viewing a piece of art. Art comes in many forms such as paintings, photography, music, and theatre. There is something about art that can reach out to almost everyone in the world in some type of way.
Pre Modern Art that brings Happiness
First I’d like to present a beautiful painting that just brought pure joy to myself when I first viewed it.
Yellow Cow by Franz Marc, 1911
Franz Marc was a german painter who was part of the german expressionist movement. I found his use of beautiful colors and objects in the painting made it subject to my feeling of happiness. Not only are the colors “happy” colors but you can see the joy in the cows face. It almost reminds of that old bedtime story of the cows jumping over the moon. Franz Marc wrote “But animals with their virginal sense of life awakened all that was good in me”. This in terms brings a level of happiness.
The next piece I’d like to present is a song by the amazing band known as The Beatles. I find a lot of their songs bring a great feeling of happiness to just about anyone who listens to them. Below is one of my favorite songs by them.
All you need is love by The Beatles, 1967
Now if one song from this period were to bring happiness it would be this one. The meaning being that love is all you need, it is everything in this world. Regardless of anything that happens, all you need is love. I love this song, and when I sing it; I feel happy inside. It’s a great feeling.
The last piece from this time is a great film that I love to watch. My parents were the ones to tell me about this film. Below is a poster of the film.
Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg 1975
This movie came out 3 years after my parents were born. It was based on a book by Peter Benchley which was published in 1974. I’m sure everyone who is with any kind of touch of the media in todays society you’ve heard of Jaws. This movie doesn’t necessarily scream happiness but in a way it is very fulfilling and an all around great movie. With any great movie, one can understand the excitement and feeling of joy after watching it. This movie is about a man eating shark and given our great advance in technology the film is in a way funny. The fake blood and the shark; while it still great directing and an all around good movie; that overall does make me feel happy; maybe just less excited to go into the ocean.
Post Modern Art that brings Happiness
Below is a painting by a modern day rapper that goes by the name of Mod Sun. His paintings aren’t that popular but I find them quite unique and very interesting.
Just a Boy, by Mod Sun 2012
This painting is unique as it consists of multiple pieces that make up the whole piece. I guess one could classify this as “trippy” art but given the conditions it would make someone happy. The name Just a boy is interesting and the art shows a odd looking being with large teeth. It’s a little goofy looking, and right now it’s making me smile and I think thats all that matters. Regardless of subject matter, a smile goes all the way to make one happy. A smile is all it takes.
The next piece is a song that bring great happiness when listened to. The song itself is not about something happy, but the message and meaningfulness of the song is what makes it happy to people who listen to it.
Summer Friends by Chance the Rapper, 2016
This song has a large message about the streets life of Chicago. The song’s message is strong and it comes off in a happy way. The voice of the song is strong as well as the beat. Chance the Rapper is one of my favorite artists and he makes amazing music. He released this mixtape Coloring Book in May of 2016. The song does have a good vibe and can bring happiness when needed.
This next piece is a brilliant film that I like to watch when I’m feeling happy or if I just watched a really scary movie. I usually watch scary movies and then I have to watch a happy movie afterwards.
Begin Again, directed by John Carney 2013
This movie is a brilliant movie and I just watched it recently. It’s always hard to come up with one choice for anything, but I found this to be a good choice for a happy movie. This is about a troubling music guy and his meeting with a young song writer. I don’t want to ruin the movie, so please watch it. The ending is wonderful and how I think that music can’t have a price to it. Music should be free, while this is a hard thing to say it is true. This movie shows happiness in the music industry and it is wonderful.
Basically art is the true secret to happiness. The making of art or the viewing or listening to it is amazing. For some just doodling makes them feel better. For some watching a funny movie makes them feel better. Some like listening to music to make them happy. I feel any art can make any individual happy.
Credit: This class has brought a huge knowledge of art and an even greater appreciation of it. Mostly being arts of previous eras. I love music, and learning more about how music began was really cool. The class was my favorite this summer and I really did learn a lot. I saw some amazing paintings and sculptures and also saw some amazing films because of this class. This class is ART and it really did bring happiness.
Works Cited:
The Key to Happiness is Music and Art 