An art that heals and protects its subject is a geography of scars.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- True art heals and protects its subject by mapping its history of pain.
- In plain terms
- Good art shows how something survived its wounds.
- What can you take from it?
- Art should honor the history of what it depicts.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What makes art protective?
- How do scars define us?
Another view
Sometimes art can also exploit scars rather than heal them.
More from Wendell Berry
We need better government, no doubt about it. But we also need better minds, better friendships, better marriages, better communities.
Permalink to quote #9 But a man with a machine and inadequate culture--such as I was when I made my pond--is a pestilence. He shakes more than he can hold.
Permalink to quote #11 Our model citizen is a sophisticate who before puberty understands how to produce a baby, but who at the age of thirty will not know how to produce a potato.
Permalink to quote #8
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