Art: What is it?

Art: What is it?
When defined (a term I use loosely in the case), art is:

The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

In today's world, especially seen in art schools, people tell us what art is. The biggest problem is when you see things such as Jackson Pollock [who I am not putting down in any way, but rather using as a comparison] as a famous, iconic artist, yet art styles such as cartooning and anime are not, yet they seem to take more time and talent. The idea is that they art easily "replicated". Thing is, with any art these days, anything is easily replicated. People do forgeries as a live, so no one art style is replicated better. If you have a sketchbook full of your work, whether realistic or cartoony, then odds are you aren't a fake. It's wrong to tell someone what is and isn't art, as most people are brought up to think not to be judgmental, but rather accepting.

Along this train of thought, what we as people are told is art is usually based on what have been considered done by the masters. But, what happens when you take away that title? Then it's just art, like everything else that people produce. A fine example is of a piece believed to have been done by Leonardo Da Vinci. At first, people believed it was done by one of his students upon its finding. But after some close examination, it's believed to be one of Da Vinci's earlier works, before he was well known. With the discovery of it being Da Vinci's, it received a world wide tour. What happened if it was only the student's? The obvious guess would be it would be returned and no more would have been said about it. But holding the title of "master" that Da Vinci has, the piece became popular in the news, even being covered by CNN. The point being most pieces are only defining because they are made by what society has deemed "the masters".

In reality, who are we to tell people what is art and what isn't? We have personal opinions and those are what makes us human. Those differences, whether backed up by scientific proof or mere thoughts that cause us to ponder are the things that make us unique. Don't ever let people you are wrong. Sometimes we have to hold our tongues because people are pigheaded and can't take disagreements or sometimes we just don't have proof to back up our beliefs because we just blank or can't word what we feel.

Art is merely an idea or concept we put into a creative form with some effort. The moment we tell people what is and isn't art is the moment we should start questioning any idea of freedom. If that's not art, then is this writing? Is this even poetry? Why is this a religion and this isn't?

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I started working on this piece because I wanted to try something faux 3D with text after being influenced to get back into graphics from some of the most gorgeous typography vector pieces and then thought "Geez.. this is a loaded topic piece.. especially on an art site". But, I really enjoyed doing this and really had fun writing up the description. I hope you think about this as much as I do.

if you would like a certain size, I can modify it for you. Just send me a note or comment here, either works

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Tools: Photoshop CS5

DISCLAIMERS:
-IF YOU PLAN TO USE THIS AS YOUR BACKGROUND AND UPLOAD ANY SCREENSHOT OF IT, PLEASE LINK BACK TO ME. ---IF YOU PLAN TO USE THIS AS YOUR BACKGROUND, DO NOT REMOVE THE "by twa"

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HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS! A FREAKING DAILY DEVIATION?! I never thought something like this would happen! I feel like I need a speech or something. But, I owe all my thanks to my really good critics: Amma and . They are seriously some of the best critics for me, and even though Amma isn't an artist per say, he's very good at picking out the fine details I need to improve. I'm so very glad that you all enjoy this piece as much as I do! THANK YOU ALL SO VERY VERY MUCH!!!!!!!

UPDATE: I'M SORRY I HAVEN'T RESPONDED TO ALL YOUR COMMENTS YET!! I'm slowly making my way through them between work, school and making totes. I actually have to do more art /sob. BUT THANK YOU EVERYONE! Especially for being patient with me!