The language of art ... or ... the art of language.

Some initial thoughts ...

Over the eons of human development we replaced our feelings and emotions as a primary means of communication with the words and syntax of language.

We simply have to watch the higher forms of animals to see ourselves in that now distant evolutionary past ... but not so distant that we no longer communicate with feelings and emotions ... and that is a problem, isn't it?

The problem, of course, is what to do with the emotional reaction or feeling that is triggered by some event, that in turn triggers a desire to respond in some way when we are telling ourselves the reactive act is inappropriate in the particular situation, such as:

The smell of food when we are hungry, and lunch time is at noon ... so we are stuck at our desks for some period of time.

The anger we feel when we are cutoff in traffic by some inconsiderate driver ... especially while experiencing the frustration of heavy, slow traffic ... and, of course, not everyone stays rational ... hence the all too common occurance of what is now labeled "road rage". But many if not most of us stuff or repress the natural feeling of anger.

And we are constantly suppressing sexual feelings in the face of a seemingly endless stream of sexual signals designed to attract our attention ... and we now know that many if not most of us are in state of repressed sexual frustration much if not most of the time.

But — where Freud went wrong, or so my layperson's opinion tells me — it isn't just sexual repression that complicates our psyche, it is the constant repression of most feelings and emotional reactions that gives rise to our neuroses ... and the sense of estrangement from ourselves, our humanity.

When we are unable to complete the action triggered by our emotion, we separate our emotion from our response ... we split ... we divide ... our self, and become an estranged observer of our own life. For some there is even a fear of wholeness, a fear of the desire to act, and following through.

Which brings us to art ... as the means whereby we re-integrate ourselves with our feelings and emotions ... as the key to the lock binding our chains of repression.

With the coming of language, comes the need for art ... to integrate our psyches with the primal world from which we arose, and if from which we are separated entirely, we descend into madness.