“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
                                                                                                                                Thomas Merton

   The highest, most sophisticated forms of human thought and expression are found in 'The Arts'. This might sound like the arts are for only the most talented and intelligent of people, but in fact, the opposite is true. Everybody needs art in their lives. Whilst we can use language to describe and talk about the things that we know, it is through art that we can connect to the unknown chaos that surrounds us. It is the job of the artist to delve deep into the unknown and make order from the chaos, to push forward the boundaries into the chaos. When the artist is successful the whole of humanity benefits.

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The Story of art

   The Renaissance in Europe took place between the 14th and 17th centuries. Renaissance means 'rebirth' and it was during this period of history that many changes in art took place. Before this time in Europe paintings were almost always commissioned and paid for by the Catholic church. These were two dimensional pictures and kept within the strict rules of Christian religious rules.  However, craftsmen were becoming artists and exploring new ideas and new philosophies. New scientific practices were becoming more important and new styles of painting emerged using mathematical laws and principles. During this period private funding began to be available (most famously from the Medici Family in Florence) for artists to produce new styles of artworks and they began to explore and produce three dimensional paintings using depth and different perspectives. Since that time many different styles and sub-genres have been created and have evolved as artists have attempted to interpret the reality of the world around them and represent the true meaning of the things that they see in their pictures.
    Artists like Leonardo da Vinci were masters of not just several of the arts but of science too, and tried to explain the universe around them outside of the traditional perspective of the Christian religion.  

   Contemporary art has come a long way since the first images painted onto cave walls over 40 000 years ago. Nowadays, art galleries can be found in cities and towns all around the world and for those who cannot afford to pay millions of dollars for original works of art, modern printing methods means that there is an unlimited supply of quality copies and reproductions that they can decorate their homes with.

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The Visual Arts

The Art of Storytelling

The Performing Arts

Postmodern Art