This weeks theme for class as well as the reading is “what is art”. In class we discussed that art is something that makes you ask questions. Art means many things to a lot of people, and there is no true definition. As for myself I am entirely unsure of what defines art, but I know what I consider to be art when I see it. After the lecture on Tuesday September 28th, I am seeing more that the things I consider to be art really make me ask some intense questions. I feel like good art makes you ask really in depth questions. In our assigned reading for the class the author Suzi Gablik refers to her friend Ellen Dissanakake as well as has an interview with her. Dissanakake states that, “[t]o understand what art is, or might again become”…”it is useful to consider the bigger span of human history and not just the restricted field of modern Western society in which art has become identified with stable objects rather than with kinds of behavior or ways of doing things that embellish and enlarge life.” (Conversations before the end of time 41).  I believe what she means by this is that people are not asking questions about art, but they should be. She thinks that art has a huge question about life. Each piece of art work is a discovery that enlarges our lives. There is art all around us whether it be a painting, or a sculpture. Something you can identify or something that makes no sense.

These paintings are by an artist named Leonid Afremov. They are two of my personal favorites. Afremov is a very talented artist. All of his art work is beyond amazing and when you search through his work it is incredibly challenging to stop. What makes this art good though? I think all of his work is very appealing because the colors and brush strokes he uses. He puts in so much time and effort into each individual stroke. He has time to consider what his and the viewers minds are asking.

These are by another amazing artist named Edgar Müller, he has dedicated about 17 years of his life to strictly street painting. He creates 3D art on sidewalks. According to http://www.metanamorph.com/about.html  Although he has he traveled all over Europe, making a living with his transitory art. He gave workshops at schools and was a co-organizer and committee member for various street painting festivals. Müller set up the first (and so far only) Internet board for street painters in Germany – a forum designed to promote solidarity between German street painters. been creating his art for a while now, it still amazes me how alive he makes these masterpieces. All of his work gets my mind rattling with millions of questions about space, time, and simply just how.

Art is so many different things to so many different people. Whether it may be because it creates an emotion, the time and effort the artist had put into it, the quality, the angle, the form, or because it makes you ask important questions about life or the way we live, art surrounds us in our everyday life and opens us up to new things everyday.