The Nature And Uses Of Art

Art is an umbrella term encompassing all the myriad of human endeavors involving visual art, literature, music, dance, pottery, architecture, photography, sculpture, and other human, creative activities. Art is usually defined by the medium through which it is presented: paintings, photographic images, installations, or installations in the built environment, on canvas, on wood, on metal, etc. However, there is room for so much more creativity than this! Indeed, art is not merely a medium by which particular art forms are presented, but rather a way of life, a mode of consciousness, and a discipline shared by artists of all disciplines.

Painting is the most common means of artistic expression. It can take many forms-expression through painting, drawing, writing, photography, and sculpture, just to name a few. Painting is one of the oldest artistic forms, dating back at least to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome, and China. Painting is not just a medium of expression; rather, it is a way of life for artists, whereby they seek to beautify their surroundings, to beautify themselves, and to communicate a powerful message through their art forms. It is an individual’s innate aesthetic sense that inspires her to paint, her personal visual language that she uses to make art.

Beauty, in the broadest sense, is a subjective feeling that inspires human beings to seek out and pursue beauty. The search for beauty is the driving force behind almost all artistic endeavors. The search for beauty is an imperative for all artistic endeavors, since beauty is the ultimate goal of art. In order to achieve aesthetic balance in our lives, we must continually evaluate our own physical and psychological responses to things, including ourselves and others, and our reactions to the things around us. Beauty is not only the product of human emotion, but also of objective aesthetic judgment grounded in the knowledge of what makes a thing beautiful.