International University of Sarajevo Faculty of Arts and Social Science Visual Arts and Communication Design Program Course:

Introduction to Visual Communication Lecturer: Lejla Panjeta, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Research Paper "Defining Art"

Student: Envera Suljic, 3rd year

Sarajevo, December 19th 2012

Defining Art

Coming out of totally different area than art is, gives me little right in a task I'm about to take. But, luckily, my passion and curiosity and knowledge I gained made out of me an amateur who is just stepping into magical world of art. Even though I was always against proverb 'Picture speaks for thousand words', after meddling so much with the art, I realised that picture/art is actually ancestor of a word(s). All those cave paintings we discovered and more amazing things yet to be discovered, are actually telling a story about lives and culture of a people living at that time. It tells us a story that we never were savages, but even more developed and smarter than now, because we were dealing with such difficult matter as art/pictures is/are. The art exist as long as human kind and I strongly disagree with those who are trying to limit art or artist to only contemporary art. No, art was made in a cave and person drawing on a cave wall was an artist. It is different from current definition of an artist, but it still does not change anything. Maybe current artists have more knowledge about certain things, but I think that everyone appreciate more things who were made out of pure love or even just as trials of making a sign of your own existence. Defining art is one really hard job, but in my opinion, if someone defines it by heart, the definition cannot be wrong. This is because beauty also comes from the same source and it can be considered as most important factor of an art or artistic expression. So, for me, art is a skill, ability that is granted to only few special ones and for the rest of us, only a opportunity to enjoy the product of them is left to take. Art is something that can be useful and interesting for a different generations, that might change certain things.

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser' said John Gardner, and I must say that I agree with him and that best definition of art and a life in the same time is this. Below is a self- portrait by Van Gogh (upper left), who was not famous in his time at all.

The fame and importance of his pictures came a lot later and now he is considered as one of the best artist in the art history. But, looking at his portrait some might say that the picture is ugly and that he should put some more effort in it. The essence of this picture is its uniqueness and simplicity Van Gogh used. Because of the non- mediation Van Gogh used in his picture, the simplicity and few mistakes he put in the self- portrait, the previously mentioned quote just shows that sometimes art is with mistakes who make it only more beautiful. When compared to life we know that some mistakes we made, make our life only more interesting and that without them we would not be what we are right now. I remember one scene in a movie 'Mona Lisa Smile' where teacher Mrs. Watson says to her students '...there is no text book to tell you what to think!' I would take this as a perfect motto for everyone who just focus their studies/learning to the books. Sometimes an emotion is

much better teacher and a guide than a book, mainly when it comes to thing so hard to explain and define such as art is. In the end I would say that for me definition of art is not and cannot be constant, because it differs from individual to individual. There can and must be some rules to follow, in the certain period of time, but this talent cannot be measured and graded. Everyone is an artist, on this or that way and we all should respect that, even though we might not agree with it. I would like to consider this research as my artistic expression, because I know that when it comes to painting or drawing my skills cannot be shown or expressed properly. And for the end of this research I leave you with one more quote applicable to what I already said: Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art. (Neil Gaiman)

References
1. http://skinnyartist.com/150-amazing-quotes-to-feed-your-creative-soul/; visited on Friday 14th of December 2012 2. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_art.html; visited on Friday 14th of December 2012 3. http://www.arthistory.net/; visited on Friday 14th of December 2012 4. Movie 'Mona Lisa Smile'; 19th of December 2003, USA; Director Mike Newell; Writers: Lawrence Konner, Mike Rosenthal;