I have always wondered about this question. I assume art is what anybody says it should be. The dictionary says it is...

" the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance."

I am a website developer by trade and Rhonda always says that what I do is art and I say not really because its just a collection of tricks I have learned how to do. Of course then when I speak to artists about the subject, I find out that the art world is full of tricks of the trade.

One example I heard debated recently was the fact that some artists use projecters to start an art piece. Some say it is cheating and not truly drawn, others say it is a tool no more than a brush.

Of late, I have started having a fondness for Steampunk style art. Particularly the mechanical gadgets as apposed the graphics. If you don't know what steampunk is, it is like the imagery in "The League of Extrordinary Men" and style of Jules Vern.

Anyway, back to my question...

What Do Each Of You Consider "Real" Art?

Please comment below with your answers.

Comments (8)

loriday said:

... I have always been told that art is subjective. If the artist creates something and calls it art, then it is art. I heard a story that Yoko Ono had an art show once and showed an apple--the actual fruit--and had a little card in front of it with the word a p p l e written on it...and sold it for a LOT of money! I suppose that is art, as the "artist" has to create the idea. I have a graphic design degree from SAU-Tech circa 1988. We had the typical drawing classes, painting classes, and illustration classes. We also had a gi-normous projector in a vault called an art-o-graph that you placed a image on and it projected it onto the paper beneath. You could enlarge it or minimize it as desired. I do not think that it is cheating, as you have to then decide what to do with the image after you "trace" it. We were encouraged to use the art-o-graph. Some times I used it, sometimes I didn't. I never used my graphic design degree. I learned paste-up and graphic arts photography. When I moved to Little Rock and tried to get a job, Graphic Design had gone completely computerized...with programs such as Quark X-press...which I didn't know. The closest we came to using computer aided graphics programs was using CAD. I returned to school at UCA a decade later and took graphic design courses, but decided that I didn't care for creating using the computer. Graphic Design and computer aided design is considered Art, but for me I prefer to draw or paint.

November 11, 2008

rhonda said:

... Art is a creative expression........................ people use different tools......cameras, paintbrushes, computers,projectors. I sometimes myself feel as if it's cheating to use the tools we now have available....but I bet if a cave man saw someone using a pencil to draw and paint from a tube his comment might be a real artist would use a rock to draw with and mash just the right berrries for the color accents.

November 11, 2008

ricksidebottom said:

... good subject. for the sake of trying to get along with people in general, I will leave this subject to the so called experts

November 11, 2008

Brian Converse said:

... Rick - there you go trying to get along again ;-)

November 11, 2008

Stormcrow said:

... I thought I had a pretty good definition when I started this but always came back around in my explanation and found I had nothing but empty air and a bunch of words... and I think that says something about what art really is.

November 12, 2008

Brian Converse said:

... "Empty air and a bunch of words" - I think you just defined web development to a tee!

November 12, 2008

TLouise said:

... What is art....? Art for me personally is only art when it provokes a movement in the heart or soul of another. When it provokes one to stop and think about what they are feeling and viewing. Art in many forms has caused much peace and war in our world. Art is personal and private....it is that place where we feel pleasure, pain or the birth of thought.

November 12, 2008

ricksidebottom said:

... I always try and get along with others. The recent increase in quality pain meds helps :) :) :)

November 18, 2008