Art Actually

Art, according to Plato, is an imitation of nature. Though I am half-hearted about his claim, I would like to elaborate more about it. Whenever we hear about art, we are somehow reminded of things that are connected to art. For instance, art reminds me of paintings and vases displayed in museums, sculptures erected in historical places, and everything that appears to be simply beautiful (without questioning the basis of being beautiful) in one’s eyes. But as a university student, can art be simply defined with those mundane ideas that I have just expressed? In the university, we, as students, are being trained to see through things, or to look at the things beyond the naked eyes could see. It might seem like complicating simple things, but it actually helps us understand what really their purposes are.

If art will be defined by someone who is unfortunately incapable of scribbling lines together in order to create a graphical sketch of, perhaps, a girl, then will his own understanding of art be considered valid? Likewise, if art will be defined by someone who went to a comprehensive art school and academically honed his innate skills of visually expressing himself, then will his understanding of art be the most valid definition of art? Will the latter invalidate the former, or otherwise? In my opinion, the answer to all of the questions here is simply NO. Anything that is either concrete or abstract is subject to the definition of anyone belonging to any level of demographic or psychographic profile, so is art.

We see things in many different ways. Like me, for instance, if dictionary.com[1] defined art as “the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance”, then it is always up to me if I would like to understand art as how it is interpreted by reference books or websites, or if I would like to let my brain explore on its own library and decipher a new definition of art based on its own personal experiences.

Art is art as you see it, as to conclude this. Your definition of art might be influenced by your personality or by the knowledge you acquired from educational institutions. As for me, art is when I see something that is unlikely to be cliché. Art is when it stands out even though no one is likely to pay attention to it. Art is when it exceeds the basis of being mediocre. But art is everything that we see around us. The nature, whether maintained or ruined, is art.

So, Plato was right.

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[1] An online dictionary that is likely favored by this author as one of the most reliable reference websites on the cyberspace.

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Author's Note: This is an essay about "What is Art for you?"