Seasons

Art that's just a creative idea or the expression of emotions isn't real art IMHO. It's fine if someone wants to express his/her emotions with a poem, a painting, a song, whatever - but that's something everyone can do. And I don't believe in "everyone's an artist".

As it was mentioned some postings above - art has always something to do with a great amount of skill. (or as we say in German: "Kunst kommt von Können, nicht von Wollen. Sonst hieße es Wunst." - is anyone able to translate this? )

With certain limitations I would consider childs paintings as art... but not a pile of rubbish.

Just me, I don't see any difference between a Van Gogh and some $10 flower painting at a swap meet. I guess it's art to someone, given how much some people value it, but it just doesn't do anything for me.

On the other hand, I definitely recognize artistic differences in things of a mechanical nature, such as the design of a car or building, or the way a hand-built piece of furniture has been put together. I guess one person's old gas guzzler is another person's masterpiece.

Thus saith Babelfish:
"Art comes from ability, not from wools. Otherwise it would be called Wunst."

I think I missed the punchline somewhere. Let's see, Konnen (don't know how to do the umlaut) sounds like 'cunning.'

Kunst is German for art, maybe the W from wool?

If my very rusty German knowledge serves me right, können is a form of the verb "can" (which implies ability) and wollen is some form of "to want".

That would make more sense than wools.

You're right, I fell smack in the middle of this, and I thought it was a quote from The Hitchhikers Guide, lol

I love Babelfish translations.
Right, Kunst means "art", können is a form of "can" (or with a capital K it means ability/skill) and wollen is "to want". Wunst isn't a real word. It just serves the alliteration.

Wool, lol. ^^

Irina: I agree with what you are saying, and would not that the kind of porn you are refering to is 'craft' not 'art'. 'Craft' in the same vein of definition as tooling out a cookie cutter ikea lamp design by the dozen without thought, whereas erotica is more akin to the hand designed wrought iron lighting fixture that took ages to complete.

Also: yes- it seems that the universe is selfreflective and detailed enough to the point that one can study caligraphy to attain enlightenment, or cryptography to prove chaos theory. Personally i find that both glorious and boggling.

feyz: if an artist is defined by having produced with great skill, then is a learning violinist not an artist? is the expression "bad art" then a misnomer more corectly labeled as something other than art?
Also: I believe all people produce art but only a percentage do so habitualy; meaning: all people make art but not all people are artists.

I just wrote that art is always connected to a great amount skill somehow IMO (not: art is necessarily something produced with great skill). A learning violinist is gaining more and more skill, slowly mastering what he does. It would be wrong to shelve this necessary process, of course. In fact that's what is most important to me in this discussion.

All people produce art... hmm, that's really something to think about. But it would be even harder to draw a line then between art and not art. And I really like to draw lines.

Eugene Meltzner:

OK, but suppose I write something in Visual Basic (or Java), how do I get Windows to treat it as a screen saver?

Um, in VB you do something special when you are compiling the program. I can't remember offhand; I haven't done in a while.