What is art?

Art to me are original works created from either an imagination or ordinary works. When I think of art I think of Andy Warhol’s portraits or lesser known works like  orange car crash fourteen times. To some this isn’t considered true art because Andy Warhol took   commercialized works  such as campbell’s soup cans and  famous icons such as Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn manroe.  and turned them into pop art. However, the concept that made Andy Warhol famous is both original and ground breaking because he was able to separate the difference between commercialize imagery used in magazines and fine arts.  Danto however argues against  the dissonance of Warhol’s concept of  separating the difference of commercial and fine arts.

Danto(1983) states ” This problem could have been raised at any time, and not just with the somewhat minimal sorts of works one might suspect the Brillo Boxes to be. It was always conceivable that exact counterparts to the most prized and revered works of art could have come about in ways inconsistent with their being works at all, though no observable differences could be found”

In other words, Danto (1983) is stating that Works of art can be considered both as either art or not as art, by the way they convey an image. for example warhol’s Brillo boxes are not considered as art, yet they can be consider as art by the statement that Warhol is making about art. In other words, If i take a bathroom sink or toilet laying curbside that someone is throwing out, that isn’t considered art. But if i took the same items from my neighbor, threw acrylic paint  on or in it, and then called it my existence, than it can be considered art. Because of the fact that i took an ordinary item that is ready made and incorporated original thought and concepts that is which my own. I did this once with a mannequin that I “Acquired” from a unnamed clothing store, I took drilled holes in to the torso and breast and used hoop earrings as piercings. I called it the modern woman and sold it before i was able to display it. my point is that you can not use the same criteria for various genres of art… It may not be art to some but to others it may have a higher representation of what art should be or how a particular concept or point is conveyed through imagery.  The essence of all art is that should be representational or non-representational to what point you are making as an artist. Danto uses the example of throwing paint using a centrifuge: although i never used a centrifuge when i splatter paint on canvas but there is a difference between raw emotion and “just throwing paint on a wall or canvas just for fun”(parphased from Danto 1983)

For me when I create art by either splatter painting, painting in general or photography, I try to create a balance or trinity (of sorts,) between what I love, What what i am feeling at that point in time, and what i see or perceive around me.  To me that is the essence of art.