[ex]

What does art mean to you?
I got this quote from a Stephen King book. (On Writing)
www.srfg.net < check it out

**Critique is thankfully welcome. (does that that make sence)

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-- Sean FitzGerald (ex)

[aNoah]

Hmm, tough question. Art to me means using tools to create images that "make my heart sing"... and that means they look have to look cool. Of course "make my heart sing" and "looking cool" are very arbitrary concepts. Well then, that pretty much sums things up. The meaning of art is rather ambiguous.

PS Maybe this will help:
A snapshot of whatever I'm working on.
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-aNoah
My Gallery

[This message has been edited by aNoah (edited October 27, 2000).]

[]Aratex[]

I think that art is using some medium in an attempt to share the feelings of your heart or something locked deep within your imagination. Art doesn't have to be visual.. Art doesn't have to be cool... Art is something deep and personal that comes from within you... It is a passion, an unparalleled form of self-expression...

Oh, and it's really cool.

[Isric]

Aratex kept it nice and broad. And it should stay that way. Get any narrower and people just get angry

[spooge demon]

Much broader, please. There are cultures that place no value on originality or self-expression. These are modern corruptions. I don�t know why many people think they are the only true basis for art. They are only one.

Stop and think of the subtle gradations from craft to art, from art to utility and practical function. Think of people who pursue an intensely personal passion and talent that have nothing to do with �art.� They can be as creative (most human endeavor is problem solving) and produce wondrous results as any artist. For example, I am as interested in how the Romans built their roads as I am in their sculpture. I think other aspects of their culture to be as important to their identity as their art.

I suppose architecture is a good example of the blending of art and craft. In a lot of ways, I like architecture a lot better.

Political art pisses off a lot of people. But I don�t feel that is a necessary component of art. You can piss people of in a variety of less fancy ways

I agree with the King quote, either. We have arts because we can afford them. The artistic production of a society is a by-product of its efficiency. That person who painted in the caves of France could take the afternoon off to indulge because of the truly beautiful way they solved the problem of living. You don�t paint until you have eaten.

This doesn�t sound like a professional artist speaking, eh? I guess I am tired of the narcissism I hear from artists so much. You might think I do not like 20th century western art. I love it.

***pulls on tin foil suit***

[PuckDewd]

*puts on my super-cool shades*
"Unfortunately, noone can be told what 'art' is, you have to see it for yourself"


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Electric Synapse

[ex]

Spooge, I did not understand a word you just said. Maybe my innocence of being 13 had something to do with it?

[Tinusch]

I think he was basically just showing how broad the term "art" is and how many different types of activies can fall under the category.

Personally, I don't care what art is. I don't like to call myself an artist, and I don't like to call my pics art. I draw because I like to, plain and simple. Nothing fancy about it. I do what I do. I think art is whatever you think it is. There's no simple definition. It differs from each individual. Some people might think crap on a stick is art. Doesn't mean that everyone will appreciate that form of artistic expression, though. I think art is in the eye of the beholder, as someone on this forum said not too long ago.

[ex]

Thanks for clearing that up Tinusch. I didn't mean to bring up any contravercies or anything. I just wanted to show off something I spat up last night.

[shahar2k]

I've had this debate many times with friends, here's my personal conclusion

Any object, or thing which holds meaning whithin itself is art, anything that in it's appearance, construction of process can hold a meaning which is not referential to something else, is art, and can be apreciated as art.

Art is a way to store our Ideas and create new Ideas with out material world instead of inside our own head, the combined enjoyment of art comes from our combined experience as humans allowing us to *peek into* the art and retrieve some of the message or concept stored whithin it.

Hope people read this

[DuKEZ]

I found the hidden msg in that picture

quote:

" Welcome you little slut. This shit took me for-fucking-ever
so you better appreciate it! "


eh?

[This message has been edited by DuKEZ (edited October 31, 2000).]

[Hurri-cane]

[ first of all i want to apoligize for my bad knowlegde in english ]

spooge, dadaism ?

art is personal, and if the viewer of art finds it nice, then u have delivered some new feelings that the viewer havent felt before he looked at it (not that the art gives a brand new feeling you never felt before, but just for the moment) and shahar2k pretty much summoned it up...

[opticillusion]

"Art is an adornment and embellishment of life."

~Leo Tolstoy

[Joachim]

Je suis une artiste...


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Joachim's Place

[A.Buttle]

Spooge, bro, where'd you get the suit?!

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I wanna get with you, girl!...
And your sister, I think her name's Debra....

Joe Dillingham

[email protected]
Three Times A Day

[LethargicBoy]

art isn't just self expression anymore...when you are working for a company or cause, that company/cause is going to express itself through you, you are a tool...i may have just contradicted myself...art has become neccesary in our modern culture to express ideas to other people to get them to buy things, influence opinions ect. ect. ect....this may sound bleak, but i'm just trying to expand on the ideas listed here, which are valid ones...

[Visigoth]

Well put, Spooge Demon!

For me, art is defined as the action of expressing a desire to create a work that benefits your own personal growth, and hopefully the growth and enlightening of others at the same time. Whether it be designing a building from scratch for people to live in, painting a breathtaking landscape, scultping the bust of a famous individual, if you express yourself while creating it, putting some of your own personality into the work (whatever work that may be...painting, music, literature) then it is art.

~{V}~

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Your car is a fiberglass penis extension.

[AliasMoze]

For some reason I can't access the page with the quote. Rats. Well, here's my take. I preface the following with the admission that I could be talking outta my arse...

Spooge makes an interesting point. People tend to practice art when their absolute needs are taken care of. I would expand on this to say that functionality in objects proceeds design. I imagine the first shoes ever made didn't look too nice. They were most likely 100% funtion and no design. But look at a pair of new Nikes. Functionality is probably better than ever, and they are loaded with design. The problem has been solved, so let's make them pretty. Similarly, an iMac LOOKS a hellofalot better than an Altair 8080.

I think art is that which is designed to create a mental response from human beings. Without human reaction, I don't think art is art. It's like a tree falling in the woods. The REASON people create art, I think, is because we have a built-in need to interact with other people. We are self aware, and we have a sense of identity. Some animals don't. Show a monkey a mirror, he'll think it's another monkey, and he will never ever learn. Show a great ape a mirror, and he'll realize quickly that the image is himself. I think it's an even higher sense of self in humans that compels us towards artistic expression. A painter paints to show other people (or sometimes himself). A teacher teaches, because of the affect on the student. Art doesn't happen in a vaccuum. And sometimes things BECOME art overtime, because they take on a different meaning to later generations.

Art doesn't have to be what we traditionally think of as art. Everyone creates. Everyone imagines. We literally couldn't think without creating. I think Einstein could certainly be considered an artist. I think most people have thoughts equally profound, but the thoughts either don't relate with enough specificity to an important matter, or the person is never able to successfully express the idea. That is why artists are consumed with technique. Without the execution of the idea, it isn't art. Einstein admitted that his breakthroughs had little to do with physics and much to do with creativity. Physics was simply the medium. Art is the expression of the idea. It has to get out of the mind of the creator and into the minds of others. The degrees of success will always vary until humans are telepathic.

What's interesting to me is the ways that various mediums work and at what levels. Imagery, like paintings, produce a reaction. It can be implicit or explicit, but they usually do something to the viewer. Moving pictures do something else. Music is probably the most powerful artform for triggering emotions, but music is usually very implicit and only at the level of the emotions. (but not always). Movies fuse many arts together, but they are slower than a song or painting. I could go on forever about this. I wish we could all sit around in person and talk about this stuff.

Lastly, Lethargic touches on one interesting point. The task of producing effective, accurate, and consistent response has become, well, an artform. Commercial art, product design, ads, etc. have become more and more successful at this. The reason, I believe, is that there is lots of push to make it so. It is of great interest to many people (especially in the U.S.) to learn how to make people feel a certain way at a given time. It's a trick of creating response and building association to an object (usually a product). I'm not saying that this sums up ALL art, but it's interesting to think about it. And I'm not saying ads are evil. My idol since I was a kid has been Spielberg, who's always been accused of being manipulative. Hey, he's a great artist. Your mind goes where he puts it.

Ah, sorry about the diatribe. I just wanted to kick in my two cents, since so many great points have been made.

And that concludes "Deep Thoughts" with AliasMoze

[This message has been edited by AliasMoze (edited October 31, 2000).]

[Gru]

My standpoint
Art - is a high results of humans. Results his brain and feeling beautiful. In constant development (sorry for bad english)


Sergey Pronin (aka Gru)
http://www.moris.ru/~stolica/gru