What makes art, art?

I've often wondered about why people consider things art. It makes me wonder whether we've all lost it after a certain period of time, whether we all enjoy bullshiting when it suits our purpose, or whether we have come into a period of history where one idea (that whatever makes it into a gallery is considered art) has changed our perspective on what makes art. I am definitly confused on the notion, being a painter, i have this sense that art needs to be something aesthetic (and i know its in the eye of the beholder), or something that creates tension and feeling. This idea alone lets me accept Duchamp's urinal, or Triangles on the middle of a canvas, because as much as i disagree that it is art, i'm still talking about it!!!!! Frustrating, to say the least. I have been taking a class this semester on art and cultural diplomacy and policy making, and i've come to the realization that you cannot put a solid definition on either culture nor can you try to explain what art is. So where does that leave artist's such as ourselves, who have been in school for 7 years, studying art, and especially those who try to make a career out of it? I personally don't like being stuck in a perpetual cycle of "everyone can create art". I guess we all need to just go with it, because ultimatly, what does it matter what art is, in my opinion, it is who the art was made by that really counts.

Best,
Arthur

Success in art...

What does it mean to be successful in art? Today, 2/9/07, we discussed in small part, people's individual ideas of what success is in art. From what I understood, it boiled down to one thing, it's individual. I have seen shows on television about a man who painted scenes on faulty toilet seats and has never sold one of them because he didn't want to. Is this man not a successful artists in his own terms? I'm going to refer back to last weeks blog about the freedom of choice. Why, now that we have endured the hardships of art school, do we care so much about the administrative, or monetary, value of art. It is true that as people who live in a society that revolves around economics and paperwork we are bound by the bureaucracy, but doesn't the freedom of creation and artistic percpective outweigh, or surpass that block in the road? Success in art is not how well percieved you are with your immediate peers or our distant ones, but how well you view yourself. Success if finding that happy medium within yourself that balances how much you're willing to administrate in this world, and how creative you are willing to be while bound to it. Do what you have to do to make yourself happy.
Arthur

Passion VS. Perseverance

Today (2/2/07) we talked about whether we, as artists, are willing to sacrifice comfort for our art. I came to understand that a lot of us are merely feeding our passions as artists and feel the need to explain our ways as artists, but that leaves us in an economic situation that doesn't allow us to work as artist. I want to note that being an artist is not in what you create but of how you decide to think. Being an "artist", as much as many of you think, does not require you to stock shelves at Wal-Mart, or be a woodsman, unless that is what you like. As so far, all of us have decided the freedom of going to art school, and i want to know why that freedom gets lost at the end? How many of you are so obligated and situated to one life-style, that you cannot, in a lifestyle, multi-task? I don't think it has to do with our experience in the monetary, or book-keeping, field but whether or not we are going to be successful or be a flat out under achiever. My advise to artists out there, educated or not, is to aim high, because that is what you are doing when you becoming an artist. In other words, BITE THE BULLET...

Best
Arthur