What is Art?
How does art change our perspective on life and why does tend to feel emotionally connected to certain art pieces?
Staring at the tiny droplets of blue paint on the floor, the painter felt captured inside the four white walls. For a brief moment, he felt hope. The type of hope that isn’t specifically based on an event or item, the type of hope that glides around you and occasionally hits you unforeseeably. The window that previously sparked tiny specks of life in the room, now was a viewing glass to beauty. On the other side of the asylum, the sun was rising over the sleeping city. The painter quicky picked up his brushes and started painting strokes and swirls of blue, brown and the occasional yellow. During his stay at the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, Vincent van Gogh painted Starry Night in 1889.
Many people heard about Vincent van Gogh, and Starry Night remains one of the most recognized pieces of art in the world. Yet many people do not know how depression and paranoia were taking over the painter’s mental health. His art expressed his despair through the dark tones of color used and the form of art displayed.
There is no immediate definition to art. Art can be seen, heard and even felt, but every piece of art involves an artist. Art in its broadest sense, is a sense of communication. The artist communicates his feelings, thoughts and observations through the use of materials, sounds and techniques.
Proper analysis of artwork can not only express the artist’s emotions and life, but open deeply hidden thoughts and feelings. Artwork is analyzed in every aspect, ranging from color and technique to sounds and hidden thoughts in the paintings. Often artists leave small depictions in the big picture, which symbolize something profoundly personal. Furthermore, there are no set of rules to analyzing or creating art which may be the cause of art acting as a form of escape to many artists. “Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis (its representation of reality), expression, communication of emotion, or other qualities. Though the definition of what constitutes art is disputed and has changed over time, general descriptions center on the idea of imaginative or technical skill stemming from human agency and creation.” (Lumen)
In conclusion, art may have different meanings to everyone, but everybody loves looking at other people’s masterpieces. When we look at certain paintings, we feel an emotional connection to the artist. It may be expressed through a painting, song, or even a poem. Art is the freedom to express what you are feeling when you cannot place it into words, define it, or are afraid to. As well, art is a form of history used to help scholars understand the social situations that people lived in decades ago.
