The Nature of Art


So you want to make art? First, what is art?

In my MFA program I was asked to present and defend a thesis on the nature of art. This required me to sink into hibernation within my brain cavity and find the magical source of the fountain of true art. The traditional definition is to define art as an object or event, and since this has to be redefined every now and then to fit contemporary and Avant Garde advances in the arts, I threw all of these out of the window. Thus I came up with a new language of defining “ART.”

There are two types of things in this world, art and ordinary.

Art is a value. It is not a thing. Each of us has a yardstick to measure the value of an object within our own conceptions and perceptions. This yard stick is different for each of us, and is affected by our social, economical, ethnic, sexual make-up (and age). Each of us trains our yardstick each time we view or experience something. It is in flux. I view some things when I was a kid, and I placed the value of art upon them. But, now I see them as ordinary now.

Art happens during the creative or critical process. Yes, the viewer can be proactive in this process.

The creative process is the process by which something is created or done. We do it all day everyday in all things. I think of something, I do it. Driving to the store may is a process of inspiration and divinity. My girlfriend wants ice cream, and this inspires me to make it happen. This is ordinary.

However, if a phenomenon occurs within this process, the end results may have the value of art. Steven Spielberg is famous for elevating his creations in the sketch phase. He is known for speaking into a recorder while in the shower, where he sketches out his films. His ideas are seeds for elevating his work.

A phenomenon is magic, like when an ice drop forms in a crucible full of hot metal.

My favorite potter in my old college town elevated his work as his hands touched the clay being thrown on the wheel. He never strived for an ordinary perfect shape. He was continuously striving to make something magical. An excellent drawer can elevate his work in the way he controls the finite tip of the graphite as it touches the surface. Thus he renders something made with magic, not an ordinary pencil point. An excellent golfer may have that moment when he controls his club to touch the ball exactly where he wants with the exact pressure and force. This is called satori; the moment of being one with your work. I try to focus on each tip of the rasp on my saw blade when I cut my work. This is probably the toughest of all forms of elevating work above ordinary, as it requires practice, practice, and more practice.

I knew a guy in grad school who was into casting rubber. He did this very well, with a sense of satori. But, the end results were still ordinary. He knew this. He had perfected his craft by making chickens. Yes, he had over 100 ordinary but excellent rubber chickens. So, the night before the critics arrived, he stapled them to a board and projected the Mona Lisa on them, and painted the Da Vinci classic upon those rubber chickens. The critics were aghast. He elevated them rubber chickens.

Duchamp elevated an ordinary urinal into a work of art, by merely placing it upon a pedestal in a museum. He called it a fountain and signed it R. Mutt. The way he displayed this ordinary thing made a statement about art and museums that elevated this thing to the level of art.

A Native American boy took off his shoes 300 years ago, and placed them in a nook in the rocks. Something occurred, and he did not retrieve them, but they were preserved till now, where they reside in a museum for us to look at. These were ordinary shoes to this little boy 300 years ago. But, they are no longer ordinary shoes. The phenomena of time elevated them to the level of art.

Now, all of these examples of phenomena are examples of but a few of the infinite ways an artist can elevate his or her works above the level of ordinary. But, you cannot make someone believe that something they perceive as ordinary is art. And, I have by no means insinuated that anything can be art. This is stupid elementary teacher falsities which our culture is inundated with. Like, art is whatever you want it to be. Art means whatever you want it to mean. This is ridiculous. If you truly believe this I have a piece of limestone I found in my driveway, and I want you to think it is art, and it means that humanity is in a state of beatific decay. No, the viewer has a proactive role. But, I will cover the role of viewer later on. My brain hurts


So, art happens when a phenomenon occurs anywhere within the creative process to elevate something above the level of ordinary, anywhere within the process from conception to display of the work. And, yes it has to be displayed, for if no one sees it, how can they deem it above the level of ordinary. Thus, Aunty Erma’s watercolors she keeps hidden in the closet cannot be deemed art, at least till we see them.

So, you want to be an artist. My suggestion is to make stuff. Make magical stuff. And, never make anything ordinary.

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