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Question:

How has the notion of "making special" changed views of what art constitutes?

.....is children's work considered art?

Please help me answer these questions.
Thank you.


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

I don't know what you mean by "making special," but I can tell you what makes art, and then you can decide for yourself.

Broadly speaking, children's work can be considered art because it can make you feel something, and more importantly, it can make a variety of people each feel something different. It doesn't really matter that the artist perhaps didn't intend all of the meanings that people can get out of it.

It is easier to understand art if you call it "aesthetics," from the Greek word for "feeling." The power of art then is the intensity and variety of "feelings" it can invoke. Both "variety" in terms of number and different kinds of people and "variety" in terms of the number and different kinds of feelings/ thoughts/ memories/ associations/ etc. it invokes. Intensity, the same thing: both intensity of feeling within each of us and intensity of feeling across the board.

Simple, hunh? The funny thing about definitions of art is that they inspire in our minds the exceptions --- because we resist "definining" or "confining" a concept such as art.

My "definition," though, does just the opposite. It frees art up. Go ahead, if you want to waste the time: try to find an example that doesn't apply. Or, pass it on. It is extremely useful in understanding all external stimuli, from nature to "unintended" beauty to things that are "ugly" yet are still considered art to who knows what.