What's Art, Pop?

"By viewing nature, nature's handmaid, art, makes mighty things from small beginning grow," wrote Dryden. In the Manhattan cabaret called Second City, Satirist Severn Darden, posing as a mad Germanic art professor, explains in effect what the poet meant.

"Imagine a painter wants to paint a rather simple, ordinary landscape, say some cherry trees in blossom with leaves and grass and sky and a couple of little clouds and, to balance the sky, maybe a basketball court, and playing on the court are several nuns and one of the nuns is wearing an ape suit with long red fur and spangles--forget that. Now, to get the color of the blossoms, does he go out into the orchard and rip from the tree the blossom and bring it back with him to his atelier--or pad, as you say--and look at it under the naked light bulb? No. He does not. He goes out into the orchard with his equipment --i.e., his eyes--and he sees the blossom in its natural state, with the reflection of the green of the grass, of the seeming blue of the sky.

"And if there is something near by the blossom, for example, a bee--a bumblebee--which is yellow and black, that is reflected in the blossom. And if, hanging from the anterior, the front end of the bee, is a drop of honey, that also is reflected in the blossom. Now, reflected in the honey is an eagle, and in the mouth of the eagle is a ferret, and in the mouth of the ferret is a stoat, and in the mouth of the stoat is a shrew, and in the mouth of the shrew is a marble, and on the outside of the marble is an American flag, for example, and in each one of the 48 stars of the flag--it's an old marble--is a map of a different district of Persia in the 14th century with a little symbol showing where is produced the oil, the wine, the camel dung, and so forth. All of these are reflected through the drop of honey and come back on to the blossom. Now, the artist works for years to get this exact color, and--marvelous to relate--he is able to. But does he paint that exact color? No. Because that is nature, and he is an artist. And to show this he paints it some other color, such as black, or orange, or blue."

In sum, there's a lot of art in nature, and a little Dryden in Darden.

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