Do creative-arts help one become a better person in terms of morality and principles? How?

• Drawing, Painting, Dancing, Singing, Writing... All these creative-art forms; do they have any effect on the person's views and the whole outlook about humanity? Or are these just means of recreation with no lasting psychological effects? Do they hand you a sort of "power" that you too can create something? Whacha think? ;) Also please answer my other question on Gandhian thought too. here's the link: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ain42Lgbar1XQdQSQdHBtvPsy6IX?qid=20060911164930AAfWdrc

• Answer:

  Its a very good question. Art is the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others.The purpose of works of art may be to communicate ideas, such as in politically-, spiritually-, or philosophically-motivated art, to create a sense of beauty , to explore the nature of perception, for pleasure, or to generate strong emotions. The purpose may also be seemingly nonexistent. It echoes or reflects a message, mood, or symbolism for the viewer to interpret his outlook about humanity and world in a broader sense. Creative arts reflects our own self in a way.Creative Arts is an academic discipline that is generally used as an umbrella, for Dance,Painting,Music and Visual arts.The field or post-discipline engages performance as both an object of study and as a method of analysis. Examining events as performance provides insight into how we perform ourselves and our lives. And understanding the creative nature introduces an element of reflexivity and critique to otherwise descriptive accounts of social phenomena. Creative arts has a long-lasting and profound influence to our personality.It is the prowess of an artist to communicate to the world his innate feelings,ideas,and views...the depiction of life's influence on him.It is his clear cut impression of a society,and the people he is living with ,and this naturally outflows in the creative art.It is concerned with all humans at all times and with all dimensions of humanity. Creativity can best be understood as an outgrowth of the Age of Enlightenment, an art when it was attempted systematically to study human behavior. It evolves into something more closely resembling the modern views of these disciplines and informed the development of the social sciences, of which anthropology was a part. Creative art is the product or process of the effective application of a body of knowledge, most often using a set of skills which is conveyed to others. It requires opening up eyes to understand the real sense of art in a broder sense.I think creative art is just not merely restricted to be considered as a leisure activity done for enjoying or refreshment.It has the power that can mould minds.From a more anthropological perspective, art is often a way of passing ideas and concepts on to later generations in an universal language. The interpretation of this language is very dependent upon the observer’s perspective and context, and it might be argued that the very subjectivity of art demonstrates its importance in providing an arena in which rival ideas might be exchanged and discussed, or to provide a social context in which disparate groups of people might congregate and mingle.In a social context, it can serve to soothe the soul and promote popular morale. In a more negative aspect of this facet, art is often utilised as a form of propaganda, and thus can be used to subtly influence popular conceptions or mood.The use of art from the artist’s standpoint could be as a means of expression. It allows one to symbolize complex ideas and emotions in an arbitrary language subject only to the interpretation of the self and peers. Hope I made sense.I churned out all my feelings with deep innate passion because i respect creative arts.It has the power to mould and influence the world.