11 - Aubrey Fitzpatrick: What is Art?

I think the best thing about art is that it will never run out. One could create and create and create art forever and the definition of what it is and what it can mean will forever to continue to change. Everyone views it differently. Everyone defines it differently. Thats why it's so powerful. It doesn't mean one thing. It's limitless. You could spend years discussing one piece of art and never come to a conclusion about what it means to you. You could look at a piece of art twenty different times and have twenty different reactions. Looking at a piece of art is kind of like engaging in a continuous dialogue with another being (for lack of a better word). You are either affected by it or turned of by it, your relationship to it can change (and I find that it usually does), your emotions and the emotions of the piece of art both influence how the piece affects you, and sometimes you just can't take your eyes off of it. So all I can do is describe what art means to me, because I do not want to define it.

The image is a painting by a local artist that hangs in my room at school. I chose it because when people walk in a see it most of the time they do not understand why I like it so much or even why I bought it. I love the play between the facial expression of the fish and the french phrase above it (a cold fish). I love it because sometimes when I look at the fish's facial expression I laugh hysterically, other times I just agree with what emotion is being portrayed. I like it because I have a different reaction to it every time I see it, and I can never predict what it is going to be until I am looking at it.