Leave It Up To C&H and College To Start a Debate...

[mickeythemousey]

 I suppose this originally started within my college class, History of Western Arts, expanded out when I found the perfect summation in a Calvin and Hobbes strip and was fueled by Nicole's post about the whole time-traveling thing. What can I say? It inspired me to actually post something.

The question is simple really, what is art? The answer

Comments

[priestess_skye]

i consider art to be something i like...writing, a picture, tv, film, etc. it doesn't need to ahve a certain flair, just something that i like.

and.

icon love!!

[mickeythemousey]

*chuckles* I thought you might say that about the icon.
I'm with you there on a person's concept of art being their own aesthetic preferences.
Still, I can get agitated sometimes by those that don't even try to "look past the paint," to use a metaphor that leans toward the painting/drawing side of art. If you end up not caring for it, fine, but for those that just condemn it without even trying to consider it, bug me sometimes.

[priestess_skye]

i want to make a few more saiunkoku ones. i just need to be properly inspired lol.

i agree with you about people not looking past that. however, ia m sthe same way at times. i'll go to an art gallery and see a modern painting. there was one that was one yellow line on one side and the rest o fthe canvas was black. that is not art to me. i'm not big on most modern art so i do tend to dismiss it. however, i dismiss it after i look at it and decide i don't like it.

[mickeythemousey]

I'm not saying it bugs me when people dislike certain works, or even if that judgment was an immediate one, because I will do that sometimes myself. I'm strange, however, so unless it's just a red square or yellow line I'll force myself to look at it, even if just for a little while. I try and find something deeper that, whether it engages me or not, can be found.
If I cannot find something then, yes I'll sometimes write it off in my mind, but not as art, merely writing it off as something I don't like. That's what bugs me sometimes, when people judge art from an instant and say the magic phrase, "That's not art," without considering it. It's a completely different matter to me if they simply say, "I don't like it" from a glance rather than attempting to remove it's historic/artistic merit completely.
*shrug* I'm picky though. :D

Oh and when you do manage to make these lovely icons, be sure to let the Mickey know, eh?

[demonlord_lover]

I don't judge art. What I like or dislike I consider my personal preferences - whether influenced by culture, upbringing, or my own odd sense of proportion

[mickeythemousey]

Indeed it does make sense to me-- I'm not sure if that's a comfort or not, but anyways.

I'm completely with you on the fact that the term art adapts to the time and that we really have no right to tell someone that such and such isn't art. Here's where the "good art" and "bad art" comes into play. While I don't think that defining art should be based upon an opinion, deciding what's good or bad can be nothing but opinion.
It's always interesting to hear what people will say when challenged why they don't think such and such is art or why they don't like it. Obviously sometimes there is that initial reaction and there doesn't seem to be a reason, but there usually always is, whether we know it or not (like your overvaluing of proportion).

[demonlord_lover]

I'm an introspective person. I don't like feeling a certain way without knowing WHY I do or the motivation behind it. It isn't a rare trait, but I do think it isn't exactly widely-practiced either. Honestly, I think artistic types (no matter the medium) lean toward those fields because of their natures, not the other way around. We want to understand the world and ourselves, and so look deeper into the seemingly meaningless.

[minerva_one]

Oh goodness, it's so early in the morning. :clears eyes

[demonlord_lover]

Here Here on the modern art. I just don't understand it. There were one or two pieces that I liked, but it was because it was so precise. The splotches were still splotches, but they still looked to have proportion, and it was obvious a lot of effort went into making them.

As for inspiration, art rarely inspires me. It can be lovely to look at, but I am not touched by visual things. I think they serve better as a reflection of life rather than taking you away from life. Words inspire me, and words can take me outside of my life. I wonder if that is why I'll never be an artist but I could someday be an acknowledged author outside of ff.

[minerva_one]

Modern art gets all of the attention it does just for the thought process behind it. I mean, the urinal mickey was talking about in the original post was a big "fuck you" to the art establishment. Duchamp was saying "You can't tell me what makes art" and everyone else agreed with him. But does that make a urinal artwork? It depends on if you agree with the artist or the artwork

[demonlord_lover]

Or perhaps you need both. There is something to be said from the satisfaction of the written word backed up with visuals, hence the popularity of manga and comics despite the stigma attatched to both. There's nothing wrong with doing both. It the art feeds you writing or vice versa, it seems like you have the best of both worlds. :) I'd trade a leg to be able to create art.