by Novella Creasman

Created on: September 28, 2009   Last Updated: September 29, 2009

Let's see if I can describe to you how to tell if something is a work of art. Sometimes to see a person walking down the street is a real work of art, but maybe that is a little too blunt for you. The dictionary says that a work or art is "something produced in the fine arts... as a painting, sculpture, carving, etc........anything made,done, performed etc with great skill and beauty". Everything in the dictionary has to tell you something right. So with that being said let's continue. Personal experience might be out of place here, however I think a work of art is a little deeper. Have you ever gasped for air when you looked upon an object or say something living even.Thoughts rush up to the surface of your brain and you hear your mind declare "now that is a work of art" If you haven't then you have not been looking.

I have appraised my drawing and paintings in well lighted rooms and in dark corners, hoping to see what, so far, I have not placed on the paper or canvas and sometimes the floors and walls, maybe it is the great skill that has not come forth. but I look at it critically and say to whatever I am working on at the time " well let's find the beauty", because it is already a painting or sometimes a carving. You can see where I am going with this if you have ever tried to paint, make a piece of pottery or carve a mask from a blob of clay, and if you haven't, well you are not reading this anyway.

In all the years that I have held a paint brush, rag, scraper, feather, stick or fingers for that matter, I have always had this desire to make a work of art. About the closest I have ever come to seeing this was when while waiting for inspiration to enter my very being I looked down, and there sat my 2 year grandson with his face all painted up with any and all of the makup I had, and he ran his lips out about 3 inches , looked up and said to me,"look grand mama I painted my face". This may have not been that work of art that I have been looking for but one thing for sure it put art in its place.

So whether you are painting on that expensive canvas, or painting a lily on your hard wood floor, carving out Mt Rushmore, or molding a frog house for your garden, if you are adding beauty and you use all the skill you can muster, and it is just the right work of art you wanted.... well then.

I propose now that you open you eyes to all the art that is around you, and see all of its wanton beauty, let it cast a spell over you, move you to a place that only a work of art can.

Short of this you may need to get someone to lead you to the "real works of art", remember to take your credit card or cash because it will not be cheap, however it could put you in that same special place that art tends to take you. I believe it is a dream place where all is well.

I am afraid that too many of us let others dictate what a work of art is instead of seeing a work of art for ourselves. Go ahead now and hang up that work of art that perhaps your child made at age 3, you will be a better person for it, and people who know you will see that you really understand art. A work of art is something that is treasured above most all other things in your possession.

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