Individual interpretation of what makes art

What makes art has been a long standing debate amongst the world for hundreds of years. The art scholars will give a very defined and different description of art than will the street artist found in the intercity.

If we define art as, and I will paraphrase since I don't remember the man's name who said: Art is something which someone gets more out of than the artist put into it. This statement becomes prevalent when we look at the movement of "found art" by talented individuals attempting to polish up their intercity neighborhoods and the depressed areas of the county. I have heard it said more times than I care to have that found art is only a pile of junk and not art. It is only my opinion but this rings of a closed mind or someone who has been listening to long to the art colonists. This is like saying, Rap artists arent street poets.

Everyone isn't going to like this article or the one you have written but that doesn't mean either one isn't an article. It is only their personal opinion. Art at its very basics is something that is pleasing to the beholders eye. There is an old adage which states: "It is in the mind of the beholder, not the mind of the beholded." But that doesn't mean the way a drop of oil spreads out across a pool of water is art. That is unless someone reproduces the image on canvas.

In art class 101 you are taught some basic rules of drawing and painting. The two big ones are prospective and how the piece draws the eye from top to bottom and left to right. So then an artist who doesn't follow the rules isn't an artist? Then we would be forced to say Picasso wasn't an artist since his prospective of human anatomy doesn't follow the human form. Pablo Picasso was an abstract artist, abstract art follows non-correctness of form. We don't have to like Picasso's woman hating idealism, but we have to say he indeed was an artist who made art which some people don't like.

I believe art can and does exist in many shapes and forms. I say this knowing I am only one of a minority. Although I do believe an artist should know the rules before he or she breaks them. The exception to the 'rule' would be early cave drawings and Egyptian art since there wasn't a set of rules for perspective set down during this time in history. These were the artists individual interpretation of the subject mater in the art.

Art is constantly evolving as our civilization moves from one century to the next. Art along with literature is what keeps our blood warm with passion, and passion is what moves civilization from one century to the next. The next time you look at a painting which incorporates steel shavings into the canvas or a tire rim, a rusty piece of pipe, and barbed wire welded together look at what the creator, artist was representing. It still may not be your cup of tea but you just might see the art in it.

Learn more about this author, Jim Huckabee.
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