My Definition of Art.

"Art is what's left over after you've defined everything else." -Michael Vitale.

Art and Philosophy has taught me more than I expected about art and how to define it. After reading the works of many philosophers, I find that I agree the most with Tolstoy and "Art as Communication of Feeling." Professor Johnson defines art as, "The suitably technical, creative, and intentional embodiment of aesthetically engaging thought or emotion in any publicly accessible medium." I would have to agree with him mostly. To me, art is a form of creativity, self-expression, and above all, communication. The artist of the piece of work decides what he or she wants to create before hand and what message is going to be communicated in the piece. The artist intends for it to be art and for people to view it and learn from it. He or she uses aesthetics to create a piece with strong emotion using different techniques. In the piece, the artist's self is displayed to the audience and the audience views the piece to learn something about the artist and the world. A work of art can be frightening, pleasing, beautiful, ugly, sad, mad, and so on. When it comes to art, there are no boundaries because anyone can express themselves anyway they want and everybody's idea of what is good and what is bad art differs.

I feel as though the definition of art is always changing and expanding as society evolves. I do not think it is undefinable and I feel like art needs to be appreciated much more than it is. The first step is encouraging children to learn about different forms of art and encourage the population to view museums and exhibits. Seeing art in person is a whole other experience than viewing it on the internet. My definition of art is: Any creation by a member of the art world that not only expresses certain emotions in an aesthetic manner but communicates a message to the audience successfully.

My question to you is: After completing the seminar, Art & Philosophy, how do you define art? Which philosopher from class do you associate your views with the most?

Georgia O'Keefe's inspiration of this painting was the waves of Lake George in NY. I chose to put this in my blog because I live close to Lake George and think it's pretty awesome a painting so famous has to do with something so close to me. :)