Q: so what are your views on art?

A: Art? Wow.... Could you pick a broader topic?

Q: Well, not really. I mean, ok, in its essence, how do you see art in your life?

A: Ok. Art is.... well.... art is something. Fair enough?

Q: Explain.

A: Art is something that can't be defined. Or can it? I'm sire the oxford dictionary has something to say about that. Art is craft. Made. Or found. I think that the question to ask is not what art is, (and that is a lovely, heated, debate at my house) but who defines art. Does the artist? Is art only what those who create it deem it to be? Or does the onlooker define it?

Q: So art is anything?

A: No. Not to me. Art is what you make it to be. The artist creates something they believe to be art. Their handiwork. The spectator, or critic, might not.

Q: So art is only art when someone sees it to be so.

A: In a sense. And that could be anybody. Now, don't cut me off before I finish. Because I know you'll want to right after I say it. But art is like spirituality.

Q: Ok hold on...

A: Hey!

Q: So you're saying that art is only art when it speaks to some sort of religious experience.

A: Hold on! Well, yes. Kind of. But...

Q: C'mon!

A: What I mean is that art is intangible. It not 'there' in front of you. It can't be. Art is, for lack of a better word for it, humanity.

Q: I don't follow.

A: No, you lead, and that's what I like about you. No, seriously. Art used to be defined simply by mediums. Art is Poetry, Painting, Sculpture, Playwriting, Music, etc. Now, art is seen everywhere. Someone can look at a tree and see something artistically unique and beautiful. Another can see a poster propagandizing a political viewpoint and see the art in the undercurrent of the use of color to skew the viewer to its point of view. One can still look at a painting, or drawing, and claim it as art. But you can also look at an old, beat up station wagon and say "That's art. Look at it. Look at how it symbolizes the plight of the underpaid."

Q: Ok. I'll bite, but what you're saying is that the people who see art make it what it is. That art is defined and classified by those who can't make it themselves.

A: That would be those who think they can't. I believe everybody has his or her own creativity.

Q: Is this what you meant by "Art is humanity?"

A: Yes! People used to say "This is art, this isn't." But man has evolved to the point where they can see everything as art. Art doesn't have to be anything. Art...well, art is.

Q: So art can be anything.

A: Or anything can be art would be a better way to put it. If someone makes a small clay flower pot, that may be art. It's a flowerpot in the eyes of the maker. But someone may buy it, love the way it feels in their hands and use it for a coffee cup. Then they drink their coffee in the morning, and feel this wave of feeling that says to them "This was made for this. There's some kind of art that's making me feel this way." It's amazing.

Q: So, in short....

A: Art is the one thing in the world that has been around as long as time. It may last a second, it may stand the test of time. Whether man was there to see it, take it in, embrace it, or not. Art is where you find it to be.