Is Art A Product?
Is your work artwork or product? Each artist must decide if their art is a product, or something more. There is a lot to learn about how to make money with art.
Once I visited a local University to view their art collection. The curator of the art gallery took me around and as we were walking began to describe many of the pieces.
There were many gorgeous pieces of real artistic creation that went well beyond artsy products of today. Certainly the beauty and depth was beyond anything I could reach.
Yet just around the corner we would both share an experience that would speak volumes concerning the art product mentality of artists today.
An Everything Is Art Mindset Leads To Production Rather Than Creation
The curator and I turned a corner to find a display with wooden words that students had cut out and painted. The words read, ” Everything is Art “.
These kids may never work in art design, but that sign definitely triggered the curator. The reaction she had was quick and to the point the moment we saw it.
The curator shook her head and said “no, not everything is art”. She then proceeded to tell me that those students had just graduated and those words were to be soon taken down.
That moment led me to begin thinking. All too often artists of any variety begin with a purist path of wanting to create for some reason.
This artistic creativity could be for themselves or others but at some point a shift in thinking begins to take place. For those who begin to sell their work and do so successfully a question comes to mind.
Has their work changed from its initial pure path to that of artsy products to sell? For too many this is true and it is easily seen in the world around us.
The curator at the university clearly had defined what she believed to be art or what was not art. To the student that created the wooden letters they believed the expression which they had made was a form of art.
So then what is the real definition of any art? Can we call anything art?
How Creative Intent An Expression Defines Art
If one looks at the actual definition of art it does not quite sum the meaning. What is interesting is that various dictionaries have different definitions.
Most agree it is an individual expression of meaning often intended for beauty. Yet as dictionary.com states “of more than ordinary significance”. It still leaves the door open for “anything” right?
Its real definition can be found in meaning. A mother may look at the finger painting of her child and call it artwork while a stranger would throw it away.
The child’s painting may have no other value to anyone other than the mother. Nevertheless this does not meant it is to be accepted as art.
It will never be hung in an art gallery or displayed anywhere else other than the family refrigerator. Still there is a lesson to be learned from a child, value in art.
It is to cultivate meaning with unique and creative ideas. This creativity is to be used as an artistic expression. If the child’s art for his mother is expressive of this, then why is it not art?
Art will have defined boundaries. Among these boundaries is its purpose. There is where the boundary between art and product is found. One cannot be the other.
Qualifications Of Art Separating Them From Products
To qualify something as art it must meet standards. These standards have been set within a long history of Art Appreciation. With those standards can be found a reason for why art is important to culture and society.
If this is not enough to convince some who remain in the everything is art camp, we turn to art theory. While theory can be heavily debated it will speak volumes behind the intent of why something is created.
Products are created for the purpose of profit. That is their end means. Outside of creating an aesthetic appeal there is no further depth which they possess.
Those that make these products never refine their work or process. Rather they chase one trend to the next. It is a cycle that can be seen within the many wholesalers on the web.