Knowledge Seeker
  • Home
  • Articles

What is Art?

2/5/2017

 
Art is certainly appreciated on an individual basis. I greatly respect artists for all kinds of reasons including their ability to take a flat canvas and make it multi-dimensional. They create depth; for example when we look at a painting with a long dirt road and trees on each side. It’s a flat canvass yet it looks like we can see for hundreds of yards.

I used a pencil and paper one day and watched a television show on how to sketch. The artist showed how to make trees and then got them to reflect off the water…it seemed so easy. I could listen and watch what he said and did but what I created wasn’t something I’d want to show anyone. It was then that I figured out true art went well beyond technical skills.

This is a good example of what I’m talking about: my brother-in-law is a professional photographer. He can look at a broken down building and see a beautiful picture in it. All over the place he sees art and the photos he takes are amazing. Technical skills and a great camera might produce decent pictures but not great art like he does.

I’m not too much into abstract art but one day it hit me that people like Picasso were brilliant. Creating any art is amazing but painting an existing image versus painting something in your mind, is quite different.  See if you can picture something in your mind that doesn’t already exist. How’d that work out for you? Me, I get nothing. The famous painting
Scream by Picasso blows my mind because he took this really strange image in his mind and painted it; it’s the epitome of art.

I consider most building contractors to fall into the “artists” category. I can’t look at a room in need of renovating and see the finished results in my mind. Contractors see things most of us don’t. When I walk in a home under construction and it’s framed but nothing else, I can’t figure out what it’s going to look like when it’s done…building contractors can. They not only see it in their minds, they know how to create it just like any artist. They know the tools they’re going to use and in the end what they see in their minds make its way to their proverbial canvass.
​
The bottom line is artists see things most people don’t and know how to create it. Technical skills would mean little in their work if they didn’t have an innate, God given gift of artistry. I’m definitely not an artist of any sort, but I feel blessed that others are and I get to enjoy their beautiful creations.  


Comments are closed.

    Author: John Mann

    Picture

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly