‘Art’ has had many definitions and interpretations throughout time. There’s no definite definition for it. ‘Art’ is subjective. Art is whatever an individual person interprets as art for themselves, it seems. In that sense, anything and everything can possibly be art. If a person looks at a painting and says it is art—it is art, though it might only be art to that person, since art is what an individual things is art. Paintings are only listed as art in a textbook – because a majority of individuals would think paintings are art. Every person attempting to define art would then give a different definition of what it is. About.com’s Shelley Esaak lists several points and raises questions about what it is and say’s my entire first paragraph where I decide art is subjective – “would require a stack of paper from here to the moon to cite all of your 6.8 billion references.” This is true and I really shouldn’t go into this that far or it would be TL;DR (that’s ‘Too Long; Didn’t Read’ meaning it was too long so you don’t want to read it/didn’t actually read it, for you people not aware of the various internet slang here). Esaak sums it up a little nicely and settles for: Art is form and content. That, to me, is basically saying art is everything and subjective in a very philosophical way that doesn’t require the 6.8 billion references she thought it would. Now that I’ve established art is subjective here I will end this with a short list of some things that I subjectively view as art or not. Feel free to add these to your own subjective view. - Anything that one takes considerable effort to make aesthetically pleasing for themselves or others is art. - Anything that one takes little to no effort for the purpose of impressing an art critic/teacher is not art. Meaning: If you pump out a very poorly written poem for no other purpose but to not have an incomplete homework assignment – I wouldn’t consider it art and you’re very very undeserving of that grade and ticking me off. ….However, if there was little to no effort put into this and everyone in the class is pleased with it, I may view it as art depending on if you’re a comedic genius or not and the poem makes me laugh. - Good jokes are art. - Crayon doodles by children are art, even if it doesn’t look anything like what they say it does. - Photographs taken by teenage girls and given the self-description of ‘artsy photos’ are not art. That is just a picture of a slightly tilted tree and making it black and white is not going to make it any better. - The tree itself is art, especially the color-changing leaves. - Photographs candidly taken are art. - Cartoons, anime, Pixar-esque animations, and comic books are art. And also very colorful. - Floor tiles are art. - Fashion, make-up, and hairdos are art.
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