what makes art ?

It's a debate I scarcely dare to reference for I sit among the most liberal minded; art is in the eyes and it is the eyes that bind. If we don't believe that anything can be art, that anyone can be an artists, then we leave the expressions of our souls either confined to basements and boxes or in the hands of a designated elite. How can we say that a nine-year-old's rhymes are not genius or that a toddler's finger painting and a Jackson Pollock don't share the same passion and happenstance? Some argue that if everyone is an artist then no one is an artist in the same way that if everyone is unique, then no one is, but why is it so important that there only be a few of anything unless we are concerned about how much profit we can make or market competition. Art has existed before humans claimed it. It doesn't belong to us - we engage it. As far as I'm concerned, anyone can be, and most likely is (in some way or at some time) an artist. 


So, to my students blogging and creating: don't be shy. Put it out there! It's not art because someone else says so. It's art because you say so.


Angela