What is Art?

Once again I'll complain about the lack of my own updates.  I don't know how many of you actively keep up with this but I'll apologize anyway to you.  I can't promise more regular updates but I will update when I feel that I can.

Anyway, this hit me as I was driving today so I wrote it down.  Hope you enjoy and do ask yourself the same question.

What is art?  

What is the line of the pencil, the stroke of the brush, the god captured in marble?  

What is the moving symphony, the adrenaline-pumping concert, the passionate singer?  

What is the tragic sonnet, the bestselling book, the inspirational novella?  

The twirl of the dancer?

The performance of the actor?

The photograph of a moment frozen in time?

The dramatic climax of the film?

The pivotal comic strip?

The comedic animation?

The portrait born in the digital?

The cautious preparation and display of food?

The meticulously coordinated room?

The form of the fabric on the human body?

The string of yarn manipulated with the needle?

The gripping video game?

The titan skyscraper?

The patient work of carpentry?

The form and features of our body?

What is our desire, no, need to create?  What is our need to put more into our world than already exists within it?  Art can be said to be a great many things - free expression, the manifestation of the artist’s thoughts or ideals, a revealer of who we are, both as the artist and the viewer.  Art can perhaps even be said to be truth.  I will not dare to say that those or any other reasons are incorrect, but if you were to ask me, “What is art?” I would look around and within myself and say this:

Art is proof of the soul.

"What is Art?" ©2012 James Curry a.k.a Sem