Sunday, January 31, 2010

What is Art?

Should art be intentional and representational to be considered art? What is your personal definition of art?
I believe that art is in the eye of the beholder, the creator and the spectator. Art is everything around us from the colorful Monet painting to the unusual formation of collected junk found in the trash. It is what gathers people together to observe something that can cause a chain reaction in thought and conversation. Art can be accidental or intentional; it can represent an emotion, an event, a place, or something personal to the creator.
Take a walk outside in a park and look around. The allure of nature and the landscaped flower beds are a form of art with their flowing colors and array of fragrant beauty catching the eye of people who pass by. The gently aged buildings that surround the area can also be considered art. The graffiti that is so carefully spray painted on the sides of the buildings could be considered an art form. Gaze at the glory of everything around you as you take in the different art forms that fill your surroundings.
Not all art form is manmade either; stones settled at the bottom of a river being gently washed with the flowing water can form images on the stones. Or a mighty river flowing through the earth causing the land to wash away forming what we call the Grand Canyon, can this not be considered art also? As far as I am aware, these acts were not intentional but still could be considered art.
According to an online dictionary art is described as the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. With this definition we can consider everything around us as a work of art.

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