Tuesday, February 2, 2010

What is art?

We never know, before the recording of information (a.k.a. “history” I think we call it), what a certain person or group of persons’ motives were behind creating something. I do think that if it was created in the consciousness of doing so that it must of had some intention. The brain, in my understanding, cannot work without a certain intention in mind. Whether the intent is just to pass the time, or make oneself or others happy or entertained, or to blow off some steam because you’re very angry, they all have some intent behind them. Some of the time that intent is to represent something, but not always. And I still consider that to be art. It is still an expression of the person’s thoughts, feelings, or an expression of their bad day.

Art means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but to me it is the broad term for a whole array of ways to express ourselves. It doesn’t just have to be on a canvas or sculpted out of bronze or clay. It could be drawing a picture to pass the time while you are listening to a boring lecture on the elements of chemistry. Or it could be a chemist concocting a new material that makes silly putty seem like it was the toy of the cavemen- something waaaay more “silly” and more “putty-ey” that expresses that certain chemist’s inner playfulness. Art can be the way we walk on the great wall of China differently than the last person who walked on it. Music, writing, dancing, climbing a new rock- we can express ourselves in the way we do any of those things I just mentioned. Whether it measures our creativity compared to the next person’s or not, it is still an expression of who we are- our mind. We were NOT all created equal, in the sense that we do not all have the same robotic mind, set to execute a specific set of rules within a certain boundary.

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