Art

Art: Creative Expression And Effect

Everyone has their own idea of what art is and how it should be defined. Because of this, it's hard to craft a precise definition. However, there are general criteria: deliberate manipulation of the medium, and an effect on the emotions or the senses. This broad definition covers painting, sculpture, carvings, music, and even decorative writing. Skill or mastery with a subject can also be defined as art.

The oldest known works of art are the cave paintings of ancient civilizations. These civilizations also created sculptures of what we assume were gods or the ideal form. Seventy five thousand years ago, someone carefully drilled and strung together tiny snails shells into jewelry. These were found in a cave in South Africa, and are the oldest objects we know of. Clearly humans have been creating art for thousands of years.

There isn't as much information about these cultures available as we would like. We don't have a through understanding of how they lived. We must piece together what we know based on what we uncover. Finding art is very helpful because it lets us know many things. We get a sense of what was important to these peoples and what they considered worth remembering. Cave paintings depicting hunts show this was a main part of life. More day to day activities are harder to determine. Limited time and materials wouldn't be used for something as mundane as how nails were clipped.

We suspect that many of the art objects we uncover from ancient times were considered sacred – depicting man's relationship with the divine. Another form of art – Islamic calligraphy – is often used to represent God, or Allah. Islam doesn't believe in the depiction of Allah through images. Neither sculpture nor paintings are used to show Allah. Instead, Muslims emphasize architecture, strong geometric patterns, and especially the ornate, beautiful calligraphy.

Just as with western calligraphy, Muslims start with the letters and words of their written language. This is then stylized and arranged in such a way that it becomes it's own piece of art. This art is a beautiful and abstract, and at times collected. Not all Islamic calligraphy is religious, but it is seen as important because of its ability to preserve the Qur'an.

No matter what form it takes, art is intended to arouse us. Sometimes the artist doesn't do this deliberately, it is simply embodied in the work. At other times, the artist very deliberately structures the final form to evoke a particular emotion. Sometimes this is happiness, sometimes it is disgust. Through art the artist wants to make us think. They may want us to examine our morals or make us look at the subject in a new light. Art, in a broad sense, is a depiction of what it means to be human.

Various mediums express this differently. Like dance, which shows how the body is capable of moving, or photojournalism which seeks to capture reality as closely as possible. The skill of the artist also plays a role in how art affects us. It can take considerable skill to make something look easy or even to make a particular piece of art appear simple. From ancient times to modern day art has endured and it will continue to endure long into the future.