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Is it art? Is it good?
The question of whether or not something is art is impossible to answer with any certainty because art is not an absolute. Art is relative; it is dependent upon external conditions for existence and for its specific nature. Most people will agree that humans make and determine art. Some would say that animals make art - Tillie the dog for instance : Tillie .But this gets into the arena of intention and I am not going to argue whether or not a dog is scratching, tearing, and playing with something material or working ardently on a “drawing”.
I remember seeing somewhere on the internet that a man was saving his baby’s dirty diapers because they were “art”. Where do you go with that?
In this day and age we are at the mercy of the “everything is art” camp and therefore everyone is an artist. So this also means that everyone is a musician, a chef, a dancer, and a poet. God forbid that anyone be told they are not an artist if they should claim they are , just as children should not be singled out at school for excellence because it might make the average children feel bad – so everyone gets a prize!.
I think art as concept and as design is very complex and it is too bad we only have the one word for it. If there is more than one word for snow used by the Inuits then there should be more than one word for art in our language. The word "art" has become a huge umbrella embracing all forms of self-expression. Self–expression and art are not synonymous. Surely there should be some criteria for delineation between the bad the mediocre and the exceptional? But that is probably asking too much.
I really like how Ira glass puts it below. He gets right to the point without hurting anyone’s feelings. Good art takes lots of hard work -which really blows that guy’s diaper art theory.
