An Artistic Approach To Life

2 - What is art?

Since this book is has the rather bold title An Artistic Approach To Life I feel obligated to start by saying something about art. If I am an artist and I tell you about different things that follow me through my life then I feel like the title is justified. I'd consider myself an artist but what is it exactly that allows me to say that? I compose for various instruments, I write songs and I sing, I have to do the occasional painting for school, I write down my thoughts like a writer. Does that make me an artist? I'd say by definition an artist is a person who creates art. So the inevitable answer has to follow: what is art?
My teacher in a course called 'history of art' once told us that art is art if the artist says so. However this is definition leads us right back to where we were because we define the artist by using the word art and we define the word art by using the word artist. If we generalize - and I am aware of the dangers that come through generalizing - we can easily discharge the necessity to define the word artist by simply saying that an artist is just a person. So the definition of art is an easy one: art is art if the person who created it says so.
In general I agree with this statement. I do however still want to add an important detail or rather change some words of that definition to make it more specific. Instead of talking about the creator of the so called art, let's talk about the observer: art is art if the person who is the observer says so. Have you ever seen someone do something that you were impressed by but other people deem it not noteworthy? It is because you are different observers and you declare that the observed thing is art while the other person doesn't. What reasons you have is an additional thing to worry about. It is not my duty to convince you that someone is art when you think it is not. I would be working against you and since at least to me art is a very important part of life or even something above life I would be living against you.
Through the observation of anything we become the artist. We see, we interpret, we find meaning, we evaluate if what we see is art or not. And as always one should keep in mind that an artist always has a reason for what he does and if this reason is simply to please the eye (that is if we're talking about visual art of course). So if you are being told that something you consider to be art is in fact not what you think it is then keep in mind that the speaker, or rather the artist, has a reason to say this. Even by saying something is not art we become an artist (we say "this is not art" therefore we have at least an idea what art should be ergo we are an artist). The reasons this person has for saying what they are saying are reasons in any case. Whether you deem them justified or "good" reasons is not important to them. You need to see that those reasons exist and regard them as part of the art.

Art is if the person who is the observer says so. They have reasons (in your eyes valid or not does not matter) to say something is art. Through this they become the artist. Through this they give the art not new meaning but meaning that you may have not seen before, meaning that has always been there. And this is where I come to my conclusion: The interpretation of art (and within this lies the decision if something even is art) is infinite because its meaning is not limited by nature but only by the artist who does not accept another artist's work on the same piece of art.

So enjoy what I have to say. Deem my approach to life worthy and call it art. Or don't.
Give what I have to say meaning. Or don't.
You are the artist of everything you see, that's not the hard part. The hard part is to understand that everyone else is an artist too.

-Aster Jinn