A paper I did for college writing that I'm particularly proud of. Enjoy!
Art
When
most people think of the word art,
they think of paintings, sculptures, or drawings. However, the word art is broader than what is
traditionally thought. Two disciplines can be as contrasted as orange and blue,
and it is possible to call them both art. Webster’s New World dictionary
defines art as “Creative work or its principles; a making or doing of things
that display form, beauty, and unusual perception” (77). Most people’s opinions
would probably be in line with another definition in the long list: “Any branch
of creative work, esp. painting, drawing or work in any other graphic or
plastic medium” (77). This definition overlooks many deserving skills. A better,
broader definition would be: “an object or skill that takes time and effort to
develop.”
A
traditional artist, if she is any good, knows how to coordinate her colors and
textures so that they work together in perfect harmony in order to achieve the
desired effect. Any artist (and the term here means one who practices
traditional art) knows this did not happen overnight. It takes time, talent,
and practice.
An
athlete is not considered an artist in the traditional sense, yet when he
moves, if he is any good, he has trained his muscles to work together in
perfect harmony in order to achieve the desired effect. Any athlete knows this
did not happen overnight. It takes time, talent, and practice. His goal is not
to make something beautiful, but something useful.
A
writer is also not considered a traditional artist, yet when she writes, if she
is any good, she knows how to combine her verbs, nouns and adjectives in order
to make a piece that is pleasing to the ear. Any writer knows this did not
happen overnight. The finished product takes time, talent and practice. Her
goal is to make something that may be either beautiful or useful. The goals and
the result of each are very different from one another’s, but the underlying
principle is the same: hard work is necessary to achieve the best results.
Based
on the above premise, anything that takes time and skill is art. Painting, drawing
and sculpting are included in this category, but there are many other
possibilities. For example, a carpenter is an artist, because it takes time and
skill to make a chair, desk, table, etc. A hairdresser is an artist because it
takes time and skill to sculpt a beautiful haircut. Animal trainers, dancers,
lawyers, politicians, musicians, film makers, cooks, and engineers can all be
artists in their own field.
Art,
however, is not merely the human ability to manipulate in order to form something
beautiful or useful. A child scribbling on a piece of paper is not an artist,
at least not in the category of crayon drawing, and the resulting piece is not
art, no matter how beautiful it might be. There is not a sufficient amount of
effort involved to make it so. However, if the child tries really hard to
create a picture, and practices and develops the skill necessary to make it
look beautiful, the resulting piece is art, because it took time and skill.
Conversely,
not all things that once took time and skill are considered art. It takes time
and skill for a child to learn to tie his shoes, and at the beginning when he
or she was first learning, it was, in fact, an art. Over time, though, it
becomes automatic, and it is no longer an art unless the child begins to
develop the ability to tie his shoes in beautiful and unusual ways. If an art
ever becomes automatic, the person performing it is no longer an artist. For
him to be considered an artist, the skill he performs must be continually grown
and developed.
Leonardo
DaVinci is one of the most famous examples of an artist. He consistently grew
better and better in his skill. He learned how to mix and contrast his colors
and laid them side-by-side in order to create the desired mood of the painting.
Marie Curie discovered radium. The unknown compound was trapped inside another
compound, and it was very difficult to get it out. She worked to extract it,
and each time she failed she learned more and more, and finally she hit upon a
solution. She went on to learn as much about radium as she could, its patterns
of behavior and how to use it. She was continually learning and increasing her
knowledge of it. Both Leonardo DaVinci and Marie Curie were great artists. Art
is the continual development of the human ability to manipulate some part of
the world into a beautiful or useful form, in a way that takes both time and
skill. Though those who paint, sculpt or draw are traditionally known as
artists, art is not restricted to those disciplines, and almost every person on
earth is some form of artist.
Works Cited
Gamow, George. Biography of Physics. n.p.:Harper &
Row, 1961. Qtd. in “Women in
Physics
Herstory.” n.p.: n.p., 1999. Web. Google search. 14 Oct. 2013.
Neufeldt, Victoria, and
David B. Guralnik, eds. Webster’s New
World Dictionary.
3rd
ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988. Print.
