What is Art? (Article Brief)

Clayton Tracy
Mrs. Stamper
Art III
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/07/23/what-do-we-really-mean-by-art/

• This article was composed by Marilina Maraviglia. She is a college student, a translator, and a freelance writer. I will only summarize the first 3 parts, as the article is very, very long. Check for yourself, if you wish. She starts out the article asking "What is Art?". To me, that is a question like "What is the meaning of life?" I believe that art is what we make of it, and. like most things in life, what we put into it is what we get out of it. She gives the literal definition of art, "...something that expresses an idea, an emotion, or, more generally, a world view." She then goes on to argue how the definition of art has changed with the time period, and how it is a "controversial topic". I do slightly agree with her about art changing over the time period, but not necessarily the definition of art being "controversial". Regardless of however many different cultures have different views on what art is "considered", I believe that art is simply a way that humans connect with one another, and show off their OWN culture, as not two cultures of the world have exactly the same perspective on something.
• In the second part of her article, she appeals to two professional european artists, Alexander Daniloff and Johnathan Ball, to explain the where traditional art met contemporary. Alexander explains that one cannot trace a straight line back to this point, but rather, a few parabolas, or... a spiral. He then goes on to explain the types of artwork he enjoys, and then artist Johnathan Ball explains his digital design work, and says "Yes, most definitely (we can draw a line from traditional to contemporary art). Many of the same techniques are used, just in slightly different ways and with different tools. The same principles apply, however you create art." I don't particularly care the part of the article where the artist explain the type of artwork they enjoy, I simply care for the topic, how tradition met contemporary. They go off on these little talks about their own artwork, artwork they don't like, etc., but they do have interesting views on how the two subjects met, as I've highlighted in italics. I agree completely with Daniloff, as there are many upon many different sub-categories of artwork and not all of them had reached the "tradition-contemporary line" at the same point. I, however, do not agree with Ball. He claims that the same techniques and principles are applied when you create art, you just do it with different tools than people  in the past did. No. No no no no no no. Some techniques die out, and some new are born. Some principles of art are outdated, and new are created. Even though there are the basic principles of art, movement, harmony, unity, etc., people who created traditional art may not have necessarily even known what some of those techniques were. I can guarantee you not all of those techniques were commonly known until the contemporary time period. Regardless, both artists are qualified to talk about where they believe contemporary met traditional, and have the right to their own opinion. 
• In her third part of the article, she speaks of aesthetics in digital art. She argues that because of the effortlessness that a person can put into a digital artwork, many people believe that it isn't really art or an art form by itself. She, again, appeals to an artist, Jan Willem Wennekes. I completely agree with Wennekes on most everything that she says about digital art. She claims that, digital art is just like an other art form, where one must master the tools, for example, color theory, position of lighting, and once one does master these, their artwork shows it. Regardless of what form of art it is. Wennekes then goes on to talk about how digital art is, in a sense, an overlap of all kings of different art forms, as shown by how some digital art look like photographs, some look like paintings, etc. 
• I would have read the rest of the article and posted about it, but it's just toooooooo long. I would have so much writing to do and be sitting here for hours. I hope you get the jist of it all from these 3 paragraphs. :)