What Makes Something Art? (2024)

This has been my most popular post on Creative Juicer by a landslide for over three years. For this series, I’ve revisited this topic and updated the post with new reflections.

Like p*rn, many people think they simply know it when they see it. Art has a feel to it, a certain weightiness or gravity that distinguishes it.

… right?

Wrong.

Often, when people put these kinds of boundaries on art, they are talking about high art — classic forms of art like painting or sculpture. But society left those limits behind long ago, if they ever really existed to begin with.

There is so much incredible pop art that would be easy to dismiss under this stiff, traditional definition–Banksy, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Whedon, Tarantino. The list, of course, goes on and on and on.

To my observations, there are a few different elements to what we tend to call art. And then there is those things combined, which is where we enter intoactualart.

Those elements art creativity, skill, entertainment, and meaning.

1. Creativity

All art is creative, but not all creativity is art.

Creativity is innate to all of us, and unique to each of us. It helps us find new answers to questions, problem-solve, discover and imagine. We use it to pick out our clothes each morning, cook dinner, make an impromptu joke in a conversation. Whether you realize it or not, creativity is part of who you are.

Often, when someone says they are not creative, what they really mean is that they are not an artist. I hate this. Everyone is creative. To shut yourself off from that is to miss out on the richness of your being. And sadly, the more one says something, the more one believes it.

2. Skill

Skillsare specific abilities that are fostered with careful, diligent practice. This includes abilities like drawing, programming, playing a sport, writing, or public speaking. Creativity enables you to imagine a beautiful picture; the skill of painting allows you to bring it to life.

It’s easy to mistake skill for art. Skill can paint an exact replica of a beautiful setting that looks artistic. Skill can bring to life an incredible musical composition. But an ability to copy exactly is still merely skill.

Another reason for the confusion is that many art courses start with the skills required to create art. My college photography course spent a lot of time discussing framing and lines. But taking a well-framed shot of a spiraling staircase doesn’t make me an artist. It means I have mastered the basic skill that sets the foundation for art.

Don’t mistake my meaning here–skill is essential to art, as is the foundational knowledge of an art form we gain from practicing skills. But to make it art, we must add our own creativity and meaning to skill.

3. Engagement

I used to call this element “Entertainment,” but I don’t feel that’s accurate anymore. Entertainment is optional to art and not always appropriate. But art must engage–otherwise its meaning never gets out.

For example, last year a movie was released called American Sniper, depicting the true story of Chris Kyle, a record-setting sniper from the Iraq war, who struggled with and overcame PTSD, and then used his experience to help many other veterans cope with PTSD, only to eventually be murdered by a veteran he was trying to help.

Many slammed the film for using the man’s story for entertainment and profit. But after seeing the film–and how it touched two Veterans and their significant others in the same theater–I didn’t feel it was exploitative, and I did feel itforced a close look at the important issue of PTSD. It didn’tentertain as much as itengaged.

But that’s not to say that entertainment is bad, or even that it isn’t art. There’s a lot of great pop/genre art out there that’s excellent entertainment, while also containing meaning that I’d label as art. I’d put shows likeGame of Thrones andYoungerin this category, along with satires likeFamily Guy.

4. Meaning

Art has to have meaning. However, that onus falls largely on the viewer, not artist.

The stereotype of modern art may be the best example to represent this divide. For one person, a square filled with a single bold color is not art–in fact it seems amateurish. But another sees great skill in the textures and methods applied, and great meaning in the resulting brush strokes, or simplicity, or boldness, or what have you.

So is it art? This is where art gets subjective. For someone who finds meaning in the work, yes, this is art. For someone else, it’s not.

It makes defining art really messy, but hey, what’s wrong with that?

Which brings us back to where we started:

Art.

Art puts skills and creativity and engagement to work for the purpose of amassing meaning by exploring a theme, critiquing society, making a statement about human nature, or otherwise communicating an artist’s message.

Ultimately, the distinguishing element of art is intent of the artist.

The distinguishing element of art is also impact of the viewer.

Which brings us into some murky territory, since no one can know a creator’s intent unless they share it–and artists so often don’t. Also, even the artist cannot control what any individual takes away from a given work.

There’s great tension and significance in that gap in between the two. That gap is the work itself. The art is really more the gap than the physical work.

And just to make things more complicated?Just because something is art doesn’t make it good art. Many talk about art as if it were a status instead of a category, and I think a lot of confusion stems from that. An artist can say something has meaning, but it’s up to you to decide if that message has value.

At the heart of this question, is the fact that so often, art gets associated with a special status. Someone creates something, and it’s not just art, it’s Art. In our insecurity about our own creations, we feel this need to force labels to ensure we’re taken seriously. Or, when viewing others’ art, to show our own Artistic Status.

But none of these categories have any more or less value than the rest of them. You respond to what you respond to. I respond to what I respond to.Each of these is equal.

Tell me … do you agree with these categories? What do you think makes something art?

Sorry, I don’t post on Creative Juicer anymore.

If you like what you see & want more, join my author email list for updates on my writing, posts about sci-fi and fantasy pop culture, and other readerly fun by clicking here.