Sunday, November 11, 2012

What is Art?

     Art is a tough thing to define. When we were asked about its definition in class, everyone had something different to say. Some said that art is something that creates a myth, while others said it reveals a truth. Or some said that art captures an emotion or idea, while others said it creates one. The ideas for its definition were all over the place. My definition for art is a lot more general than any of those.
       I based my definition of art on what John Berger said in "The Whit Bird" that, "art is always a form of prayer." I translated this to be basically that art is communication, because that's what prayer is, communication with God. So if art is prayer, and prayer is communication, then art must be communication. And this makes so much sense to me because John's right, that's exactly what art is!
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       Art is the artists way to communicate what it is they want to communicate to whoever wants to know it. this makes so much sense as the definition because it puts everything together that was said in class. If the artist wants to tell a myth then the art communicates that myth. If they want to tell a story the art communicates that story. If they want to create an idea or emotion, then their art communicates that idea or emotion. So what is art? well very simply, art is an artists method of communicating what they want to communicate, how they want to communicate it.