Have People Forgotten Art?

Sometimes I wonder if some people nowadays have forgotten what art is, and I am talking about what art truly is. It appears to me that people seem to only enlist the title of something being "an art piece" on some item that has a price tag well over the worth of a decent house. Of course there are still some people who do appreciate art in all of its many varied forms.

image sources: weheartit, googleimages

Those art pieces, the ones that seem impossible to even touch, sometimes don't even represent what art even is. Sometimes they are just mere forms of a status symbol that are there so that the lady we all love to hate can say to her friends: "This piece cost me a few hundred thousand."

Oh please!

I am not trying to say that art cannot be anything, because it certainly can. To me, art is your creative outlet. It is your expression of ideas, what is on your mind at that moment; what you wish to feel and express but cannot say in words. Maybe if Chuck Bass would have put his feelings on canvas Blair would have forgiven him and known how he truly felt a long time ago? If creativity and passion and imagination are not behind what you create, then why is it even worth it? Because art is creativity and all the rest on a piece of canvas, paper, photographic paper, in a sculptor, what somebody is wearing, the make-up on someone's face, whatever you decide to put your creativity in, art can take so many different forms.

image source: foto decadent (I would link but I just went there and apparently foto decadent has been deleted?)

However, the sad truth is that people have forgotten what art is. Even the tiniest things can be art. I believe nature is one of God's little art pieces. I believe a gorgeous gown is a designer's art piece. I believe that gorgeous colour of mint green we have been seeing so much of lately is some person's art piece. Certain cars-I say certain because this does not apply to all-are the engineer's art piece. Interior design, architecture, landscaping-all can be considered art at a certain point.

image source: weheartit

I hate when people try to box art to a certain criteria. It cannot be done! Art has to run free, just like your imagination. Art is most beautiful and can truly be appreciated when it is free. Free from all labels of criteria, free from all labels period.

One might think that I am trying to label art by saying, "art is your creative outlet." To me, however, that is not a label of art, but only a view point. Look at it closely and see. Creative outlet is only one of the things that I believe art is. Why do you think troubled kids/teenagers solve a lot of their problems through art? Because art allows them to express their ideas in so many more ways than words can even begin to express. They are able to express their hurt that is hidden deep within. They are able to express their joy that no one sees. Art heals. It truly does. I believe art is one of the most powerful three-lettered words.

"What about portrait art?" One might say. "Is that not art because it is not your imagination but instead someone else's face?" One might also say. Well, I believe portrait art is also still your expression: you are painting someone else's face the way you see it. We all see different people in different ways. One might paint someone very differently than another artist might paint the same person. Why do you think the portraits from before there were any cameras are not all consistent among all those different painters? They each painted that person the way he saw the person. So even then is the artist putting his own creativity into the portrait.

Someone might see bitterness in the person's face and that bitterness might come out in the end result. Another artist might see happiness and joy in that same person's face, and that's what might come out in the end result. Our point-of-view in the portrait is what makes it special.

image source: GoogleImages

Art is so many things that we should not and cannot box it. We should embrace art in all of its many different forms. Art is beautiful when art is allowed to be what it is. Art is not only something expensive that looks pretty. Art is also that weird five-dollar looking thing at the flea market you frequent. Art is that sculptor you don't understand that you see while going through Pratt Institute's courtyard. Sometimes I don't understand every art piece myself, but I love that piece just as it is. You can see love and joy radiating through an art piece, though it might be hideous looking to you. But that's just what makes art itself beautiful: everything the artist was feeling when creating it. Whether it be anger, joy, sadness, it's still beautiful. If you read this far, I thank you. I sincerely commend you for reading all this.

So I come back to ask if people have forgotten art? What is art to you?

I love ART! In all of its forms.

with love Rebekka

Edit: Here are some more art images.