What makes art art

Art?

             What is the difference between the string of Christmas lights I have hanging up in my room, and a string of lights roped off in an art gallery? Personally, I don’t think there is any difference what’s so ever. In the Art Institute, there was a gallery of interesting paintings of people, but they had odd color to them. Although there was the discoloring, they still had much detail and effort into them. You could really tell it took some time and strong creative thought process to come up with it. But next to that was this small, roped off area with a string of ordinary light bulbs. They were just lying on the floor, like someone dropped them or something. I could have done that in three seconds, on accident.  This gave me an interesting idea. I began to wonder, why is this art? Why is this here? I read the info about the piece but found nothing special about it. It did not represent anything or was not a symbol for anything.

John Frusciante, Red Hot Chili Peppers

For me, art has to surprise you if it does not catch your eye right away. If something looks dull, you should read about it. You might find out there is an amazing back story behind it. Or maybe you are just not looking at it right. I saw an exhibit where it had three big screens and what seemed to be videos of nature. But it was just of one spot, not moving or anything. It seemed as if someone just left a video camera there to sit and that was it. The “artist” has no real connection to his work. In one lecture, we were told that when we do something by hand, it makes it more significant. That works the same as taking notes. If you write something out, you will remember it better because your brain is working hard to keep that knowledge. If we make our art by hand, you feel a strong connection with it. That is why I prefer bands like Led Zeppelin and the Red Hot Chili Peppers than people like Skrillex or other electronic artists. That is why I feel like the exhibit with the videos was not really art, because it was not done by hand or there was no big moment for the artist.

The way we view things and decide if they are even art or not all has to do with how we interpret it. I might thing something just sucks, while someone else might think it is the greatest piece of work ever. That idea of viewing things in different perspectives all really comes down to how we were raised. We get our ideas of what is good and what is bad and what is cool and what is un- cool from where we grew up and live. Your mom and dad tell you when certain things are good and you need, and they tell you when something is wrong. Your peers have an effect on what you think is cool or lame.