Letters

Letter 31

December 17th, 2004

Dear Dad,

            I decided to join some clubs to spend the rest of my free time in school. I looked through all the lists of clubs and I found it funny how they had a cheese club. During lunch, I went to philosophy club. They talked about how things were decided, like what was good and what was bad and what makes it like that. We moved onto the topic of art and the president of the club asked who decides what is art and what is not.

            I stood up to say what I thought. I said that what we decide what is art and what is not, is opinionated. To me, everything is art. I personally like to submerge myself into everything and take my time into appreciating things that are there for me to see, like how the clouds form in the sky or how the waves crash into the sand. It’s always there, but a lot of people don’t do what I do. They think it’s a waste of time, but I think that it’s interesting to look at. Even a red dot on a canvas may intrigue me. I might study the canvas and its groves, while others walk pass by it thinking that it’s a waste of time. But what if this dot meant something more? What if it meant isolation? What if it meant imperfection? And then it’s suddenly art, but a lot of people may want to see art that took years to paint. That’s what they call art, but to me, it’s not all about effort. It’s about whatever you can create. There are no rules and there are no rights or wrongs to it.

            I sit back down to hear everyone’s reaction towards my speech, but they just moved onto another person’s speech. He said that abstract art isn’t art, because it took no effort into making it. He’d rather see something well done like the Mona Lisa. He used me as an example and said, “People like you are wasting your time staring at pointless dots while I enjoy real masterpieces”

            I stood back up and asked him if he’d ever heard of symbolism and simplicity, because some people like me like simplicity and I’d like to think extra hard about how some art is supposed to represent. He stood up and started calling me stupid because of how I viewed art. The president interrupted us and said, “Whoa now, you’re all right” because apparently, there are no right or wrong answers in philosophy. I left the club feeling angry. I tried to let it go, even if that guy insulted me.

            When Uncle Alex picked me up, I told him what had happened and what I think what makes art. He didn’t share his view of what makes art, so instead he said that I’m a very open minded person to think that. He finds that people who enjoy most things are those who are most open minded. He added that people who like all kinds of music are open minded too. He said that, that guy who insulted me probably only liked one kind of music genre.

Your son,

Rico