I don’t know how to tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it.
—Wilbert Rowe, my great uncle, not an artist;
also, a person in everyone’s life at some point
Trying to answer the question “What is Art?” has helped me think about what I do, why I do it, and where I am along the way to finishing a piece.
The following is a framework (a basic structure underlying a system) rather than a definition (a statement of the exact meaning of a word). Many people (mostly non-artists, since statistically most people are), will throw out the phrase, “what is art, anyway?” This question is usually meant to be a prompt for some version of, “it can be anything.” If art can be anything, it is not a useful word. Also, it really is a word, with a dictionary definition. But this is a framework for thinking about art, not a distillation of varying dictionary entries for legal purposes.
Art is the Result of Decision-based Action
There are three actions which an artist actively participates in for a work of art to be realized. The artist makes a decision on how to do an action. The description of these actions is intended to be general enough to work with any art form, and they usually happen in this order:
CREATING
Creating is choosing the idea behind the piece. The idea is a system of organization but it involves no physical component beyond thoughts / the mind / the brain. Realistically there might be a medium necessary to record or transmit the idea to others, such as a written recipe or musical score. However, since that record is entirely different from the completed product, the action of creating is purely mental.
SHAPING
Shaping is the rearrangement of materials to realize the system of organization defined in the action of creating. Charcoal is rearranged from the form of a burnt piece of wood to meaningful marks on a paper.
FRAMING
Framing involves defining the spatial and temporal boundaries which contain the artwork. This frame establishes an artwork’s beginning and ending – where the art is and where the rest of the world is. This might be the edge of the stage or the raising of a conductor’s baton.
A Fully Realized Artwork Requires All Three Actions
When only one or two of these actions have been done, the artwork is not as fully realized as it could be. Until a work is fully realized, it remains unfinished. A sketch for a sculpture is a record of partial creation, with no shaping or framing having yet taken place. A blank wall may be the frame for an artwork that hasn’t been thought of yet.
Some actions may be minimal, as in the case of improv comedy: a line is created in the comedian’s head and almost immediately shaped into words delivered within an allotted timeframe.
P.S. I have used the term artist here more freely than I usually do. I resent the usage of the term to identify people besides visual artists. Those disciplines have their own words – composer, chef, poet, architect, choreographer, and so on. Leave the word artist alone. And don’t make me call myself a visual artist. Imagine how annoyed writer would be if he had to describe himself as a “linguistic author.”