So, what is art?
A painting on a wall? A poem on a page? A song on the radio?
Over the years, I've learned to define art in two ways:
1) Anything that one person can create that has the capacity to move the emotions of another.
2) The process (and result) by which something extraordinary is created from the mundane.
I've also learned that there are three types of art: bad, good, and great. Bad art is something that draws no emotional response; a song you hear in an elevator, or a useless painting on a dentist's wall. Good art makes you feel an emotion that's familiar to you; a painting of a lake that makes you remember the last time you went fishing with your dad, or a poem about Christmas, prompting memories of cinnamon and snow. Great art is the sort that allows you to feel an emotion you've never felt before; Michelangelo's Pietà , which can make you feel the loss of a child, even if you've never had any.
These labels are opinionated... For some, a song is simply "elevator music" while others may hear something more important in it.
Art is the only true worldly mystery left. For all the studying, science has yet to catch up to it.
-Brooks
