How do you define art?

THE AVERAGE CITIZEN THINKS THAT ART…

Is about precious objects like Van Gogh paintings that sell for millions of dollars, or about expensive performances by masters in performance halls…Requires special skills, extensive training, and educated responses that usually include big words…Has a separate category called “modern” art, comprised largely of incomprehensible and unpleasant pieces…Is about government funding, sometimes for people to photograph sadomasochistic acts and to pour urine on crucifixes…Is a “treat” for the rich and sophisticated, but not meant for regular people, except in watered down versions that elicit condescension from “those who know about art”…Has glitz and romance attached to it, is nice, but not really important.

~ eric booth, The Everyday Work of Art

Eric Booth’s thoughts on the misconceptions of art are laid out beautifully in his book, The Everyday Work of Art. A personal illustration on why I believe people have misconceptions about art goes back to my college years when I discovered the reason why we did not have any artwork on the walls of the student center building. The story I was told stated that the administration would have a meeting in a room where they didn’t like the sexual nature of one of Georgia O’Keefe’s elicit flower painting so they would take the art off the walls and place it in a closet. After the meeting, they forgot to place the painting back on the walls so it laid there in the closet gathering dust. Apparently, the administration couldn’t agree what type of art was agreeable to the masses so they agreed to disagree and never compromised to find a happy medium of bland monet impressionistic landscape pieces. However, on the end of the spectrum, if you left the student center and walked about the campus, we had one of the largest outdoor sculpture collections. go figure . . .

ON A POSITIVE NOTE . . .
exploring the things others have made
I once read an article that told of a woman who would take inner city kids to the downtown art museum. She would teach them to use their eyes to see the painting with all of their senses. She encouraged them to follow their intuition to discover the stories that lurked beneath the layers of paint on a famous work of art.

I believe that getting out into the world and having the ability to change a person’s misconceptions about art is a wonderful gift. Art should be enjoyed and understood by all education and income levels. I also think it is wonderful when people go out of their way to learn about the art work different cultures. One of my interesting professors at college completely decorated her house with tribal art pieces. It was moving and powerful experience to set in her house around all these pieces. It made you wonder about the history of each piece: Where did come from? Who made it?

ANOTHER ACTION OF ART . . .
making things is a peculiarly powerful act
have you ever gone into the zone? that moment of zen where all of your being is totally connected? where everything moves in tune with each other? it is as if perfect symmetry and fluid momentum meet and for a second . . you transcend? if you know what i am talking about, what brings you to that point? creating? meditation? making love?

A FINAL ACTION OF ART . . .
encountering daily life with an curious way of seeing
one of the greatest gifts one of my professors bestowed upon me was the ability to see life with all of colored lens i could use. in one semester, we only watched one movie, but each week we would write a paper and look at that movie from a different len. One week, we would discuss the symbolism. The next week, we would analyze the psychological aspects. And so forth. The class really challenged me to analyze and be able to understand all the subtle cues the director left for us to find.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY. . .
how do you define art?