Interesting Class period...

Class on Monday was very interesting. It really got me thinking, what is art, anyway? What actually constitutes as art, and who says so?

The videos in class of performance art were...odd. I don't think I can confidently say that any of that is art. Some of it was interesting, some comical, amusing, but artistic? I'm skeptical.

I used to say that art is anything that takes creative effort and has some meaning to the artist, even if it is simply beauty, or something more like a symbol of identity. But certain things just don't seem like art.

A dog trying to get a treat out of glass bottle- cute, but not art. America's funniest home videos maybe. But then, how can I claim that when I put together film of my friends, that that is art? That isn't very fair of me, is it? But am I not in the art department at this college? Do I not live in the art building making projects with video and music? Just because Wegman's dog video was much simpler, does that allow me to tell him he is not an artist, but I may be?

There are lots of activities that flip flop over the fuzzy line of art and not art. One could argue decorating, or even pastry making. If dance is an art, is gymnastics? What about beauticians, are they artists? Architects? Advertisers? The list goes on and on, threatening the idea of how we see art. Truely, I don't think it is really all that necessary to establish a fine line. But it does make me wonder where it might be, had it been found.

I always like to say that art is whatever the individual decides it is, but then I go past the art building on campus and I see two dozen or so empty poland spring water bottles hanging from a tree by string. It's an art project.

I say nay, that is not an art project.

And until somebody tells me the deeper meaning of those water bottles, I will see them as nothing but carefully placed litter.