The part about being popular and Art was a mistake in the sentence, it should have been:
“… but if it’s just for expression of the creator (than we can’t measure if it’s successful, we can only say if it’s popular or not) than it’s Art.”

Also, the last point – could you elaborate on what you mean to say that it’s Art only when it’s popular? I suppose we would all agree that different “experiencers” experience an artistic creation differently, and have different interpretations/feelings towards it. Towards the same painting, for example, perhaps some see nostalgia, some feel pleasure, some feel sorrow. In this sense the painting may not be popularly liked/disliked in the same way. But can it still be art, in your opinion?

I was browsing around and stumbled on this website with an interesting question. What makes art art?

Everything. we can identify anything by the names that we associate them with to identify what it is. Like, the name red, blue, and green. The wheel being identified to a circle, a building is identified with the shape of a rectangle. Long, short, tall, thin and so forth. Even our human body is a work of art. Our organs, our skeleton structure is so systematic in it’s function. Our facial expressions, the clothes we wear, everything we see around us is of intelligent design. Our fingerprints has a design that identifies us individually. As such, our art style has traits that no one could copy. We can draw the same subject and have a different interpretation in the way we see and draw them.

Art is a visual language that communicates to us visually. We use it to express and communicate with one another. A stop sign is a red shaped symbol with the word stop written in it. It has many elements that helps us to recognize and identify it. Red, white, lettering, and it’s (I forgot the name of it’s shape darn) well anyway, XD ……just lost my train of thought for a moment………..

Oh! And like…well actually that was it for the stop sign thing. XD Even martial arts, the technique or style of fighting has a form of visual communication, thus the art of fighting, or even the art of war, tactics, names of operations, being able to identify the movements of enemy troops and applying a tactic in response. All these things takes creativity in one manner or another. Art is a very powerful thing that we have the honor to possess as our talents, in any given media.

We may not think much of it, but art runs as deep as the very core of our inner beings. Art is also the evidence of our existence. Our creation represents us, our thoughts, passion, life, perspective, history, and so forth. It is for this reason that I do believe that there is a God in heaven who designed us after his image. Don’t worry, I won’t get religious on anyone here, but it’s interesting to think about it.

When I create my own cartoon character, I create his looks, his world, and his lifestyle, what he will do, who he will meet and so forth. The character I created knows nothing about my existance.As far as the character is concerned, his life has always been this way, and he doesn’t question his own existance, unless I wanted him to. We basically breath life in our creation. But not in a way that it has it’s own life, but we can create artificial intelligence. All these things are possible evidence that we do have an author and an ultimate artist who designed us. Although I’m Christian, the subject of the matter really is about what makes art, art. But, it’s hard to explain this with out mentioning God anyway. It’s how I came to learn about art.

Art is also provocative. It makes us think, feel a certain way, react or even respond to it. The alphabets, the letters the english language, a form of visual art in which we learn to read. The color red, is often associated with youth, passion, love, attraction, hot, where as blue is often associated with cool, deep, sad, cold, royal, or the color black, mysterious, sophisticated, and so forth. People in their body builds, athletic, stocky, thin, obese. Or how about sports emblems of favorite teams, and so much more.

And then there is the controversial issue of erotic photos, or imagery, or nudism, depicting sensuality, form, expression and of course provocation. A good argument I once read, was that art is provocative. And that it is. No matter the intentions of the artist, if it offends, or excites or invokes any kind of emotion or response, it did it’s job, this is part of what makes it art. The art world has no boundaries. There is no right or wrong way to draw or create anything, unless the creation turns out to be other than what the artist intended it to be. Art can be beautiful, and it can be very brutal and ugly in it’s expression. This is how we can identify the things that we perceive to be to our likings or not. Thus, you have art works depicting death, sexuality, nightmares, images representing the seven deadly sins. All these are provocative, and also informative. One can either see the vast world of art with an open mind, or settle for a media of personal preference. The art world is a bigger place than the world we live in.

Art is never without expression, even if one simply scribbles, the scribbling represents boredom, indirectness, chaos. Modern art paintings in the museum is a good example of outrage to anyone who toils to paint something of high quality, only to find a portrait with a single dot, accepted into a museum. That simple painting, provoked outrage, that’s probably why it was there. This was what the artist had in mind perhaps. It’s all in the concepts, intentions, and in what we want to communicate, not so much to attract and please but simply to express and provoke as well. Thus, art is universal.

I hope I didn’t get off topic here, but I hope that what I shared was helpful in anyway. This is just the extent of what I’ve learned from personal experience. But, I’m always up to learn more about art. This is just a result of many art works that I’ve studied and interpreted, among other things. I’m no professional artist really, but, I’m striving to balance many talents that I have. I have allot of great ideas in which I express through writing, drawing, music, dance, and film, well to name a few. Anyway, this was a fun topic, I think I’ll bookmark it so I can check it out more. ^^

Interpretation is not exactly Art. It is the the sole domain of the viewer and his/her ability to view his experiences , his feelings in “your” art.

Mark you are so right in saying grading art is inaccurate. No feeling , no experience has ever been inaccurate neither is any interpretation inaccurate. No Art could never be inaccurate.

I agree that Art (as a concept) is entirely subjective and this individual definition then will cease (in a physical sense) with the individual. I don’t know that I agree with your statement that “art is not relative.” I see your point and I am still mulling this over, but based on previous posts I think our definitions are subjective and therefore art (in work), and Art (in concept), are both relative.

I will, however, agree that grading a work, because of our individual interpretations, is inaccurrate. What is Art to the artist who created it may not be Art to a critic. This is what makes “Art School” a difficult concept.