Fellow Artists, Creators, and Free-Thinkers:


What is art?


As usual, I feel like I'm missing the significance of 'art'. ART is becoming dimmer and drearier in my mind. ART makes me think of the cold concrete walls of Ruffin Hall (the art building). ART makes me think of bleary eyes and indoor lighting at night. ART makes me think of black and white and grey. ART makes me think of 2D surfaces, flat flat flat. And frames. ART makes me think of impossible detail, and saying "Wow, such realism. Amazing." (and that is all).


What is causing this?

Most likely it is A)my intro drawing class and B)my art history class. Let me discuss the latter, since that one is causing me more grief.

art
analysis
drives me
INSANE

I can't stand it. The class is long and I dislike my teacher's way of lecturing. We talk about paintings and architecture, and we analyze them. And analyze them. And more often than not, I find myself completely unconvinced of what she's saying. "This painting...is referring to the intransience of humans, the ephemeral nature of man. See how the orange peel lies, strewn over the table, the orange decaying in the background..." AAAAAAAUUUUGHphhhthyackjakblah. (Sorry, I'll try to be mature.) Just sometimes, sometimes I don't see what my teacher/TA is saying.

For example, for discussion today we went to the UVa Art Museum and were asked to analyze 3 pieces of art. (Damn...I can't find a google image of it), but my partner and I chose a simple portrait image of a child ("Clever Child", drawn with charcoal and watercolor on cardboard). Eventually, when we got to the face, I told my TA that the artist was depicting the child's "cleverness" by having the child face the viewer directly (as opposed to being ignorant of the audience/artist). The eyes were lines with circle dots under them. My TA challenged me, saying, "Really? If you stand here, right in the center...I don't know, it kind of seems like she's looking down at this angle. Here, try standing here." "No...I don't see that." I really didn't. And I firmly believe that the artist would not have purposefully made such a ridiculously subtle difference. And I feel like my discussion group (and most people) just nod and say, "Yeah...I can sort of see that" because they don't have confidence in their own judgment. Heck, even I don't. But I don't want to bullshit it.


Like Sam said, it's like people are looking for worlds in these pictures. Maybe it's just something simple!
Perhaps it's UVa, so detailed and concentrated and chock-full of words and information that it needs it pick at every last bit.

I wonder.
Tell me what you think.