Art's Forgotten Definition: Road Thoughts

I don't know if "Road Thoughts" will be reoccurring, but I find that my mind and reflexes separate as I fall into the flow of driving. One second, I'm at a red light, and the next, I'm a town away, all the while thinking about the pink stuff from the Teletubbies or why every driver except you is terrible at driving. So, since I think so much, I thought this an excellent place to put down some of the topics on my mind.

The topic at hand is Art, specifically what Art is. It's certainly not the most original question, but I can guarantee that the way you have been thinking about the word is wrong. Now, obviously, I am not the first to have these thoughts, but either way, they are my own.

When I say that you are wrong about the word "Art," I mostly mean that as the world has grown and increased in complexity, so has the artistic landscape. This also raises the question, "Does art exist at all?" In today's climate, it's hard to be sure. One of the best examples of modern divisive Art is Emmanuel Béranger's "jump art."

Emmanuel Béranger Performing

I first heard of this guy when he popped into my Instagram feed a year or so ago, and initially, I could think one thing: "What the hell is this guy doing? This isn't Art!" It's safe to say that I have better understood what Art is and isn't.

I think that the first major problem in everyones understanding of the subject is that we are inherriantly self centered. And by all means, being selfish is a necessary part of personal success; it is also ingrained into our human instincts. This becomes especially true with artists. The pursuit of selling art for a living is inherently selfish. Think about it this way: as far as we know, in the entire universe, we are the most advanced civilization. And to become said civilization we must have the brain capacity to create language, and that is the basis of what seperated us from "animals." We simply figured a way to communicate so that we could label the things around us and learn more about them. And with newfound communication comes the ability to define complicated emotions and deal with their daunting challenges. In short, it's a sad and isolating existence, so why wouldn't Art just be what "you" like? And I think that both artists and non-artists have fallen into this trap. We believe that art is what we define as worthwhile, and in the case of the artists, they believe that their expression is so essential that they try to sell it. This is just not true; we mistake definitions and truth for opinion.

I don't know when, but somewhere in history, humans became so self-centered that they could no longer remember what art was originally.

Before writing this, I looked up the actual definition of art in the dictionary, and ironically, what I just said was almost verbatim. Though there is a part I disagree with, the dictionary stipulates that Art involves "creative skill" and "talents." It insinuates that those with skills or talents can't create or find Art that expresses them. Art is human expression; end of story.

That is why I have come here to apologize to all of the artists I have judged over the years; if your Art is indeed a form of self-expression, then you are an artist who has created Art. Do I have to like it? Does it have to be morally good or bad? And what even defines expression? All great questions, but all irrelevant. If you can find a group of people that will pay to see something you created to express yourself, then you are an artist.

I had to get this off my chest. As a self-proclaimed "artist," I pay attention to a lot in the industry, and it's hard to get away from social media as is, so it's safe to say I see a lot of division and hate involving topics like these. At the end of the day, don't call someone's work "not art" just because you don't like it. Your interests are your own, and no one will ever like the same Art for the same reasons.