Defining Art...

...what is art and why must we create?

This post is something I wrote a couple years ago to help define some thoughts and feelings I had about art and the creative process.

Art is Communication - it is a form of expression. Art should be created to be viewed and shared by others.

Art is Exploration - in its purest form, it allows us to explore the calamity of the inner world. This art may not always be communicated with others, but when it does...

Art is a Leap of Faith - art that is both an exploration of self and then shared with others is a leap of faith; not in a religious sense, but by that in which we create and express and let go of outcomes. We do not know how it will be received, we do not know if it really conveys truth from within. So, we take a leap of faith each time we create because no matter how proficient and how much 'mastery' we might attain, art is absent of controllable absolutes. 

Art has no mastery - art cannot be flawless. As artists we understand that a perfect piece is unattainable. This does not mean we shouldn't strive for it. True mastery is the path of mistakes. To make mistakes is to embrace art. This is how we learn and grow. The artist who is master - that flawless expert, is not an artist at all. This ties us to the leap of faith - with art comes risk, with risk comes passion and intensity. Without such risk, without a leap into the unknown, we are devoid of all emotion.

Art is logical as it is emotional - art is the realm of academic guidelines, there are formula that we use to express that which we intend to. However, without emotion, without imagination the decision making process that occurs when we create would be wholly predictable; static and lifeless.

So then, I believe that art is an exploration of self, communicated to the outside world through a decision making process that is both logical as it emotional by taking a leap of faith into the unknown over and over again. Why? Because we have to. As artists we are each driven by a multitude of belief systems, but at some base subconscious or superconcious level what gets us to keep creating is a certain something something that is so powerful that it becomes painful to ignore. Consider writer's block or any of the excuses that keep us from creating: the feeling this swells up within us is pain. When we separate ourselves from the excuses and just go to the page or the canvas or the screen or whatever, that pain disappears - we are creators, artists all. When we experience this pain we are reminded that we are artists. When we do not feel this pain we are creating art.

What does art mean to you? How are you creative and what are some of your beliefs about art?

Comments

[Kathryn]

Trying to define art can just as hard as describing an emotion. Maybe that's why we get so emotional when it comes to art. Whether it be our reactions to it or our experience when making it. Maybe art should be define as making emotions tangible.