What defines art?

What defines Art? When most people think of art they think of pieces one would find in an art museum; paintings, sculptures, and other untouchable, impracticable decorations. These pieces are ways to look in the past and experience cultures and emotions of which we may not be familiar with. Although art has been in our culture and our history for ages, no one seems to be able to place an exact definition with the word.  Google defines art as "The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture". I think that this definition does not encompass of the true values of art. 


I would define art as any creative form that someone uses to express their emotions, culture, and self to others. I think that art a way in which people can express their feeling and share their culture to others in a creative, self enlightening way. Art is a release that allows people to share something about themselves with the outside world. Most pieces in art museums are beautiful, but also have a very haughty and expensive feel. I am often afraid to move in these museums in fear of damaging a million dollar piece of cloth. While the pieces in these museums are great I do not think they are the only forms that can be considered art.  Every day we pass hundreds  pieces of art without realizing it. Dance, graffiti, doodles, yoga, poetry, paintings, letters, music, fashion. These are just some of the thousands of forms art can take. Art does not have to be beautiful, expensive, or even attractive, as long as the artist was able to express what they wanted in a way that makes them happy. 


The piece of art I chose is a particular series of postcards. I few years ago my friend gave me a Postsecret book. Each page of the book had a postcard on it. Each postcard contained a secret. Some secrets were elaborately drawn with beautiful calligraphy and paintings while some were simply scribbled on the card with a black sharpie. Even though some were more visually pleasing than others, they all had a similar raw emotional effect. I later learned that Postsecret is a fairly well known program. People send in their anonymous postcards in to one guy as a way to finally let out their secrets they haven't been able to express to any other human being.  What started as a simple experiment is now has a touring art exhibit, blow, twitter, and multiple books. While some of the postcards are very "artfully" created and some are just sticky notes tapes to a piece of cardboard I consider all of them art, for they all allow the writers to express themselves in a way they were unable to before.

Postsecret google image

postsecret blog/history site