Ugh, every time I see something the show has said about Klaus and art, I feel like stabbing the writers with something pointy.
Art is the opposite of control. Art is not about shaping the world up to what you want to see from it. Art is about letting go, it’s about expressing yourself, showing how you see the world. And I can’t believe a thousand year old creature has managed to live with no understanding of the concept of art until now. Sure, you can tell yourself it’s all about playing up your own vision of things for the first couple of years but there’s a point where he had to have acknowledged that that’s an illusion. Art is not about imposing your vision of the world upon others, it’s about sharing it. It’s about opening your soul up to complete strangers and hoping that it speaks to them somehow.
And do not get me started on Cami’s little speech. Please. Klaus may have reacted to the words, because the writers wanted to play on that, but please. It’s such a basic and generic assessment of an art piece. And completely ridiculous and baseless.Â
I disagree about the first half, I think it depends on the character. Because art is exactly what you want it to be. If art, for you, is a form of expressing yourself then that is as much true as the one who says that it’s a form of control because it’s both. It’s the same thing interpreted by a different mind-set. And when Klaus says that art, his art, is about creating a painting as he sees fit, with the colors he wants to use and the shapes that work for him and he can make them work with his rules, then this is what art is for him. He puts a lot of thought into his paintings and goes about it with a certain idea in mind and no one but him controls what the result is, no outward forces can change it if he doesn’t want to. The thing I learned about art during my studies is that you cannot define it, there is no right and no wrong there. It just is and what people see in it or feel about it cannot be wrong.
I agree about the second half though, completely, especially when you keep in mind that she wasn’t even talking about Klaus and her assumptions about him, but about the painter. And wow, how funny is it that they are just 100% the words he needs to hear to make a decision. I hated that scene.
EDIT BECAUSE I’M HALF ASLEEP:
Oh god I hate it when half my argument just disappears and comes back after I hit send…
What I forgot to add: Klaus mainly talks about the process of making a painting, the control he has about that, not so much about the outcome. And he has complete control about that, everything depends on HIS choices, nothing is random, he absolutely controls everything, the colors, the brushes, the canvas, everything. And combining that to a piece of art that makes sense to him once it’s done… how much more control can you have?