Random Rambles: Art

Art has a unique place in our society. For all of our emphasis on concrete ideas that is exemplified in media like books and television, we often don't care for pieces of art. The idea of art seems to abstract and we try to apply our complexity to it as if the piece of art can be deciphered through our internal processing. In fact, art has changed yet again to reflect our thinking. More often that not, art is more realist to allow the audience to get a clear picture instead of a sweeping feeling or impression. Art also has multiple interpretations by artists themselves since they identify art in a different way. Because of this, art is multi-faceted and our "rectangular" way of thinking can't fit into the "oval" that is art.

Before moving on, art is defined as a diverse range of human activities and their products which means that even the definition is ambiguous. It's hard to describe art in its entirety and limiting art to just visual art still makes our view incredibly narrow when searching for this form of expression. In essence, art is just an intense form of human expression and, though the art we usually think of is visual, we can perceive almost everything made by humans as "art." Therein lies our problem because many of us can't possibly think of everything we make as art which means that art's definition has gradually narrowed until it has been just an umbrella term for multiple subcategories. Art is a tricky subject to deal with in this respect and tackling any issue regarding art is left vague.

The art I'll talk about today will be relegated to visual art that does not include television and movies. Art is seen usually in a painting, sculpture, or other model where art can be expressed depending on the artist. Art that we see tends to bore us due to how static the image is and how the subject at hand may be unremarkable or undecipherable. Our modern culture tends to regard the "high form" of art as something that captures a subject in an incredibly realistic manner or has multiple layers of meaning. Of course, art has more complexity and simplicity than what is implied by our society yet people tend to regard the art critics as the final authority and based their own opinion on the seemingly objective views of others. However, every single piece of art is unique and different which means we have quite the variety of art at hand. Most people have their own tastes when it comes to art since subjectivity is present in our thoughts. Because of this, we can't accurately "grade" or "critique" a piece of art since art is different. We can't assume even the artist's point of view in all of this because the piece of art might as well be independent from the artist once audiences view it.

So our perception on art is flawed. What does this mean then? Well, if you look at sites like Deviantart, you see that concept in play with the pieces of art. The Daily Deviations either have some ulterior artistic purpose or look magnificent. Why is it that a painting of feces can't get featured? There seems to be a level of quality in art instilled in our minds which makes us believe that some pieces of art are better than others. The people who get spotlighted deserve it no more than others because everyone had their own artistic intention that they wanted to convey to their audience. We can't judge outstanding pieces of art and this idea of subjectivity is within all parts of our society. This is almost similar to television, literature, and movies since each of these forms of art are diverse and unique. Visual art is supposed to be something an audience can be identify or appreciate and every single experience is different.

The point of all of this is to point out that art in our society is held up in a weird standard. Graffiti might be considered crude but Warhol's cans might be artistic. In all of this, we should appreciate each piece of art as being unique and not be extremely judgmental of others' opinions.