Define Art

What really is art? The Webster Dictionary defines is it as “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination.”

Most of us believe that fine arts are only things such as drawing, painting, and sculpting. Historically, fine art also includes dance, music, poetry, architecture, and theater.

Some people no longer count writing, architecture, and musical arts to truly be art, and many of those who do call them creative arts, not fine arts.

Photo by Jasmine Anderson

Whether it’s creative or fine, it is art. If you feel an emotion upon observing or creating something, it’s art.

Poetry and writing can make someone feel or think. When an author writes a story or poem, they know the readers won’t all interpret it the same way. It’s just like when a group of people in a gallery look at a painting: no one feels the same.

Theater and music are art, too. Music is made for emotion, and acting is a way to be someone else or see a place one has never visited. It gives people an escape from the stress of their everyday lives.

Sometimes, a feeling comes out of nowhere, as if the art pulled it into your mind.

Imagine that you are having a really bad day, and it’s finally time to rest, but you can’t sleep. You pick up a book, and soon, you are no longer in your room. You are on epic adventure, or swept into a tragic romance. You are a detective hunting a killer, or a hero saving the world from a villain.

Now, imagine you walk into a museum on a field trip. You see a large painting of a forest with eerie clouds blurring the colors of the trees. Then, you see a sculpture of a tiger crossing a coursing river.

Chances are, what you feel is not the same thing the person next to you is feeling. It is art. If the paintings and the statues are art, so are the books and the music.

Dive into a new world, and watch as the actors flash emotions into the crowd. Everyone has emotion, so everyone has something that’s art to them.