I am writing this list because I have a tumultuous relationship with art and the word art. My freshman year, when all my sophisticated thoughts about ~life~ still lay dormant in my post-pubestent pre-sophisticated lizzard brain, I went to the DIA by myself and sat in front of The Zipper, a huge canvas which was all red with a thin white stripe up the middle, and asked myself, how the fuck is this in a museum? I’ve always been critical of this type of art, modern art that is so simple a baby could have created it by crawling around with paint on it’s hands and knees. I don’t think it is a productive headspace, however, but it’s there none-the-less. 

 

Venting to my current girlfriend about it, who happens to study art full time, she said something that proved thought provoking. The word art isn’t even useful anymore to describe what people are doing these days. "People define art so many different ways that the word isn't even useful anymore as a definition for what each artist does. What does art mean to you?"

 

Art is art

Art is color

Art is belief

Art is nothing

Art is creativity

Art is resistance

Art is for everyone

Art is meaningless

Art is for the public

Art is for the creator

Art makes you think

Art makes you smile

Art makes me happy

Art makes you pause

Art is for the audience

Art is what makes us human

Art is complexity or simplicity, or both

Art makes you feel something, good or bad

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When push comes to shove, art is for those who need it most, be it for the artist, for the public, or for anyone in between. Who am I to judge the success of someone else's art? Who are you to judge it? 

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