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For most of history "art" has been Man's method of expressing his perception of the world around him, whether that perception came from observation (realism, the origin of the so-called "scientific method"), or his beliefs (abstraction). It was artists who were the first chemists, mixing their own paints. It was artists who studied anatomy at a time when autopsies were forbidden. It was artists who were the first architects.
As it says in Scripture, God has put eternity into men's hearts, but they do not know the end thereof. Time is not part of man's mind, yet he lives in a world of continual flux, where time seems to rule everything. Attempting to seize an undefined, vague, eternal truth behind this constant changing, men impress upon the outer world the visions in their minds through painting, carving, building, etc. It is this which is the fountain of all that mankind has created on this earth.
Before the foundations of the first city were laid, before the first king sat on a throne, before the first priest sacrificed in the first temple, some twenty thousand years ago, men were painting their world on cave walls. In the course of time this practice developed into the first written languages, for the fundamental meaning of art is in being a messenger, to speak directly mind to mind. As a wise one once said, a picture is worth a thousand words, simply because the image, with all its meanings, both subtle and obvious, is perceived by the viewer in a instant- while linear words run behind explaining, explaining, explaining.....
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