What is Art?

What is art? What is it supposed to be about? And what does it tell us about human psychology?

Erik wrote:

What is art?

Art is defined as "skill", in its fullest and strictest sense. It can range from the usual aesthetics or fine arts (painting, drawing, writing, sculpting, music), to beyond that. Architecture is a skill; so is the Liberal Arts or education. You can also include every utilitarian skill and call it an art. So basically, anything that requires will, and a good amount of theory and practice, is an "art".

Erik wrote:

What is it supposed to be about?

It's exactly an expression of the intellect, and the will of specifically us human beings (it can even be spiritual). That is, if we were to go along with art as more broadly "skill"; but even the fine arts which is called "art" can elevate the human creativity and spirituality.

Erik wrote:

And what does it tell us about human psychology?

As an extension of us, it can express our emotions; happiness, sadness, anger, despair, joy, confusion. If you look at esoteric symbolism, or allegories in religious and spiritual lore, you can decode the common themes or 'universal truths'; to find life lessons and decode things in the deeper levels of mind (conscious, subconscious, unconscious).

It's the slithering snake which lies within our psyches that crawls onto the tabula rasas of our minds shedding its skin which gives rise to imagination, wonderment, language, thought, love, struggle, genius, et cetera, which then ultimately becomes painted on a kind of canvas revealing a world which had been hitherto hidden and now becomes real, transformed and more fully known.

My answer:

Art is a form of self-expression, a catharsis implemented with technique.

With painting and sketching, it's a dual manifestation of the artist and the subject ( the one being drawn ). The artist, with his style and technique, coveys a part of himself, and with the subject, the artist tries to convey a deep aspect of the individual, something hidden or overlooked, something profound about the individual. The artist can see what other's don't; he has the keen ability to identify subtle details and nuances.

My favorite sort of art is melancholic portraits; there is no pretension, no fakery in them; no feigned smiles, just the individual in his/her raw form, the real person. You pierce right into the individual, with their thousand-yard-stare and get a sense of who they are.



Art is the act of fine-tuning, becoming aligned with yourself ( and otherness, sometimes ). This is what draws me to the martial ( arts ) too, this self-alignment. After you have mastered your technique, you are free to be yourself, to express yourself in a raw, hurricane-esque rage.