What is Art?
By, Maureen St. John

Art is something that can’t be described in one word. Art is something that everyone sees but sees it differently. Art can be one thing to me and completely different to you. I think art is a creative form of expression. You can see art, feel art & hear art. To make art really eye-catching, addicting or extravagant I think the artist needs to put a piece of themselves into their work. By that I mean out a lot of careful thought into it. You need to be able to feel/think things another piece of art wouldn’t make you feel or think about. Art needs to touch you in a sensitive spot. But that’s not every piece of art just the good ones.

I think for paintings to be good the painter needs to see things the naked eye wouldn’t normally see or else it would just be ordinary. My favorite paintings are the paintings you can feel an emotion from. My favorite artist is Frida Kahlo because in her paintings you could feel she had so much pain from the scenes in her life that she painted about. I also liked how she painted about her reality but the work didn’t look like something you could see in reality. She used a lot of disfigured objects and vibrant colors.

In the movie Frida someone said that her paintings sent the message, “At the end of the day we can endure more than we think we can.” I really liked how just looking at what she painted with no words you can get something inspirational out of it. Her paintings isn’t always something nice to look at but I don’t think art has to be “pretty” I think art is about more than that. I think how your feeling while working on the piece of art plays a strong role in how the work will turn out. For example if you’re sad the colors might be darker the images might be different than if you were extremely happy. The type of art that is most alive in my life is music. I really like music because it’s something that can make you relax and zone out easily. I feel like music supports my mood at times. When I’m sad I usually listen to slower songs than when I’m in a good mood I like listening to more up beat songs. I like listening to music I can relate to, the lyrics’ in songs is where the artist can directly express themselves. I think lyrics’ are really good when they talk about an emotion like how the artist feels about something or someone. I think it requires a lot of skill and time to create a good song because you have to be picky with the words you use. You have to make sure it all flows well and you have a good transition between verses’. I love when the artist uses words you don’t hear in everyday conversation. It’s even better when the artist talks about something common but in an uncommon way. Like when the artist creates little quotes in a way that’s never been done before. Music and poetry is very similar. I think the only difference is poetry doesn’t have to rhyme and doesn’t need to be written in any specific way. Poetry like music is a way to express how you’re feeling using your words.