How do you define art?

[Xipe Totec]

How so?

Art doesn't need to deliberately communicate anything, unless that's the artist's intent.

To me this demonstrates the artist's skill in the medium, the complexity of the design is very clear & intentional although has no particular meaning for me beyond its actual execution. If it's the artist's tag, it seems wilfully obscure but as it's unfinished it's difficult to have a clear view, so to speak.

TL;DR - Dunno what it is but I like it.

 

[mudsticks]

This ones easy peasy --

How do you define Art ??

Just go round all the edges with a Big black sharpie..

Meanwhile in other news.

Any creative expression outside of utilitarian need, could be dubbed art.

Of course we can argue about good or bad art .

And I'm more than happy to challenge Jim to a bit of elephant wrestling over that


But still creativity is an urge common to many humans.

For me the broadest definition of art is simply an act of creative expression. So street art is proper art, just the same as pictures in a posh gallery.

In fact possibly more so, as many of those pictures in the posh gallery will have been created as products to sell & don't exist for any other reason. Whether or not that stops something being art is probably another discussion!

Do thoughts of 'saleability' skew the artwork itself.

I know a few commercially successful artists who have found it hard to move their work on on from what had become considered their 'signature' style.

So they'll often end up doing two 'sorts' of art.
The saleable stuff to pay the bills.

Then other work for creativities sake alone.

 

[Adam4868]

This ones easy peasy --

How do you define Art ??

Just go round all the edges with a Big black sharpie..

Meanwhile in other news.

Any creative expression outside of utilitarian need, could be dubbed art.

Of course we can argue about good or bad art .

And I'm more than happy to challenge Jim to a bit of elephant wrestling over that


But still creativity is an urge common to many humans.



Do thoughts of 'saleability' skew the artwork itself.

I know a few commercially successful artists who have found it hard to move their work on on from what had become considered their 'signature' style.

So they'll often end up doing two 'sorts' of art.
The saleable stuff to pay the bills.

Then other work for creativities sake alone.

As in my wife would sometimes draws cats or dogs for money.....says it bores her sh1tless.
Now her own art....she's a tortured soul !

 

[mudsticks]

As in my wife would sometimes draws cats or dogs for money.....says it bores her sh1tless.
Now her own art....she's a tortured soul !

Oh dear So her art is making her miserable either way.

Maybe she'd be happier in quantity surveying, or some such ??

 

[winjim]

To me this demonstrates the artist's skill in the medium, the complexity of the design is very clear & intentional although has no particular meaning for me beyond its actual execution

I'm not necessarily even interested in the design or execution. For a lot of art, especially graffiti, its mere presence is enough to carry meaning.

 

[winjim]

Oh dear So her art is making her miserable either way.

Maybe she'd be happier in quantity surveying, or some such ??

There's a lot of it about.

 

[Salty seadog]

How so?

Art has no criteria. I don't think it needs to speak to you. The rainbow of diesel fuel in a puddle. It doesn't always need a message.

We enjoy it in the way we want to.

 

[mudsticks]

There's a lot of it about.

There is indeed, an almost limitless quantity of quantity.

Small wonder, it takes so much surveying ...

 

[Adam4868]

Oh dear So her art is making her miserable either way.

Maybe she'd be happier in quantity surveying, or some such ??

Not really but she's a bit of a perfectionist...

 

[winjim]

Art has no criteria. I don't think it needs to speak to you. The rainbow of diesel fuel in a puddle. It doesn't always need a message.

We enjoy it in the way we want to.

A diesel spill isn't art until somebody decides it is. And personally it speaks to me of the quantum behaviour of photons, of mankind's relationship with nature, about geology and exploitation of resources, of engineering, of pollution, of power and energy, of our sensory perception and our tendency to see patterns in the mundane, and our ability to interpret beauty in dirt and destruction.

Our ability to see art in something that was not intended to be, is meaningful in itself.

 

[qigong chimp]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jun/03/living-thinking-looking-hustvedt-review

https://www.themarginalian.org/2017/10/11/a-life-of-ones-own-joanna-field-marion-milner/

For those looking for a vocabulary around art and perception..

 

[mudsticks]

I'm not necessarily even interested in the design or execution. For a lot of art, especially graffiti, its mere presence is enough to carry meaning.

For many its a case of

" i was here , i felt something, i had significance "

Its quite possibly a driver for vandalism of the destructive sort even.

"This is all the effect i can have on the world - I've changed something "

 

[winjim]

For many its a case of

" i was here , i felt something, i had significance "

Its quite possibly a driver for vandalism of the destructive sort even.

"This is all the effect i can have on the world - I've changed something "

And breaking taboos of course.

Did you see the sad case of that kid who was hit by a train a few years ago? They were trying to tag the most hidden, most inaccessible, least visible spot they possibly could. Just for kudos if anybody else happened to try it. Urban exploration and planting a flag.

 

[mudsticks]

And breaking taboos of course.

Did you see the sad case of that kid who was hit by a train a few years ago? They were trying to tag the most hidden, most inaccessible, least visible spot they possibly could. Just for kudos if anybody else happened to try it. Urban exploration and planting a flag.

Yes very sad - but also very understandable
The thrill of "The Forbidden"

They said it couldn't be done - but i did it !!

Not everyone gets to go on 6th form Arctic adventures - but planting a flag in a seemingly impossible spot will scratch a similar psychological itch.

Plus some of that graffitti is Pure Art.

Both my boys are very talented artists - I found some old stuff of mine the other day that suggest i might not have been half bad myself - once upon a time ...

My current media though seems to be the "Art of Argument"

 

[Xipe Totec]

For many its a case of

" i was here , i felt something, i had significance "

Its quite possibly a driver for vandalism of the destructive sort even.

"This is all the effect i can have on the world - I've changed something "

Reminds me of a quote from one of my favourite bands from a few years back, Type O Negative:

"Functionless art is simply tolerated vandalism. We are the vandals".

I don't necessarily agree but I always liked that - particularly if I'm having a crisis of confidence over my own variable creative abilities.