What is Art?

Immediately when I think of art, I think of a gallery full of pictures, a west end theatre or a Hollywood film. And although a lot of pieces of 'art' come underneath those 3 categories, once thought about, art can and is so much more. Art could be anything you want it to be- the lines on your palm, the doodles at the back of your English book or the rain on a window.

Art is created anywhere and everywhere if you can give it the chance and creativity to be so.

That is the only explanation I can fathom about art and the only way I can explain it is this- Vincent van Gogh's art was hated when he was alive, as was John Keats poetry and F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels, and yet today they are considered some of the best artists in their fields. And why such a change? Because someone re examined their work with a creative mind and labelled it art. Although all three will still have their critics they are, in my personal opinion, held in very high regard as far as art is concerned. This proves that art is all around us, in all forms, but they may not be regarded so in popular culture, but in a few years, decades or centuries they may be hanging on the walls of houses.

Art is something that touches you on a level that everyday occurrences do not. It talks to you creatively and transports you to a world beyond deadlines and schedules. Art that has this particular effect on me includes: Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night and The Starry Night (also Don McLean's Starry Starry Night), Shakespeare's Macbeth and Othello, the Roman Amphitheatre at Guildhall, the town of Stratford Upon Avon, doodles at the back of a textbook. Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Hotel California by The Eagles, Tchaikovsky's Danse Napolitaine, Star Wars (all of them), 1920s fashion and the sky (night and day.) I could go on listing for hours, because I see many things as art- possibly because I think with a more creative mind than others, but everyone, no matter their way of thinking, will have an opinion. Not everyone will see Tchaikovsky's composition as art, but that's because art is to be interpreted by individuals not the masses, although masses can interpret it.