1) Art can make you admire the Creator -- This aims at Joy, such as Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".
2) Art can make you admire the Creation -- ultimately, this results in sadness and loss. The transient nature of things becomes apparent when we focus on the Creation. In some cases (such as some Blues) this can help us focus of that which is not passing (see #1). In other cases, such as Michael Jackson, it allows us to wallow in the illusion of happiness within this passing world, and this can be our downfall.
3) Art can make you admire yourself -- this is Pride. This is sin. It is unavoidable, but we should be aware when we put ourselves on a pedestal, we set ourselves up as God and this is how we are lost. Much of Modern Art takes this form: "I'm so clever, I'm so sophisticated. I like splattered paint, if you do not see the beauty, it is because you are not at my level." Serrano's "Piss Christ" is "art" of this type, where the focus is really on the viewer's appreciation for counter-cultural values, not so much on the object itself.
Show me the art you like, and I'll tell you about your soul.
1) Art can make you admire the Creator ...
2) ...Creation -- ultimately, this results in sadness and loss. ...
3) Art can make you admire yourself -- this is Pride. This is sin... I've never heard it expressed this way. It's elegant and rings true.
And it raises questions, for example:
Where does craft-- of the woodworker or the ceramicist-- fit in this formula?
When we admire Michelangelo's ceiling, don't we admire the skill of the man as well as the subject?
One of the things about craft is that it "says itself." It does not mimic nature; some would say it is analogous to music in this way. This was one of the arguments extended in defense of abstract art-- that it sought the sublime and transcendent, not the outward appearance of things.