Awesome use of the language, Dude!

Have you ever thought about how people have a personal language of their own? I mean, not like made up words, but people use their own set of funny, quirky slang and expressions and curses and exclamations etc. It's pretty amusing and can be so eclectic cuz the things we say rub off into each other's vocabulary until we make it our own. So we're not individuals then are we? oh my, here I go again... Sometime I'll write about this ever popular trend called, "Individuality." hmm.... Oh my generation and the birth of new sub-cultures.

What is Art?

That’s right. It appears I have found myself in another art history class, and my thoughts about art are everywhere with no one to talk to. Or rather, I just need to write this down to process and see if I can figure out what I think I’m learning. So this question is a familiar question for the beginning of every art class I may have ever taken. “What is art?” they ask us. We have our ideas; our cliché offers about expression, even relativity, but all of those answers seem wrong now. Well, if not wrong, then barely skimming the surface. I would almost venture to say that I have not yet created art; that I am only just becoming an artist now – now that I’m learning these things – if I can ever become an artist. I don’t know that I’ve been wrong about what I thought art was, it’s just now I’m finding out and starting to grasp what art can be. … And finding that there is so much I have never understood. Art is truly a scholastic discipline in a way I never comprehended before. This is not like the arguments over whether cheerleading is a sport or not; there is something so legitimate about the critique and discussion of art. Trying to wrap my head around it seems to tie my head up in knots. I’m learning that there is so much I have yet to understand about how to look at art. I want to be able to look at a piece and see in it what makes it good, what aspects could use improvement, to recognize what makes the artist skillful. How can we learn to see masterful brushstrokes in abstract expressionism? Why can’t we all be Jackson Pollock? – we have probably all tried it for fun anyway. What’s “Fine Art” about a toilet, or a bucket of paint splashed on a canvas, or lump of clay? What value can we find there? How could it take much skill? Sometimes my professors confuse me. We’re supposed to present a clear idea without being too illustrative. Every decision we make is supposed to be intentional but we’re learning about automatism. Automatism could be defined as the lack of decision making while creating art. I get frustrated when people don’t understand my concepts but I don’t understand most concepts of what I’m looking at in my text books either – until I read about them. Is this the point of an artist statement? What if pretty much anything could be art if it is the artist’s perfect expression of a philosophy he feels and struggles with? Have I finally found my definition? Could I spend my whole life trying to develop a sensibility for a particular medium; to understand how it works and how to control it? Will I be the type of artist to exact the imagery of my philosophy? Or will I be like Hans Hoffman who said, “If I ever find a style I will stop painting.”? Will I be able to call myself an artist at all? Will I ever find the time?