Why I Love Art and Believe in Art

 

“Art” is a term which can describe just about anything and everything, by all logical means rendering it useless, yet we still use it on a daily basis to ascribe praise to things we like.
How does this happen? Some things simply have more “artistic qualities” than others, and this judgement is based on our personal preferences. Humans are intelligent social creatures, so these judgements often align in a way which ultimately makes up humanity. Within the theoretical vector space of infinite possibilities which make up all possible ways to interpret something, how amazingly humbling is it to think that humans have only spanned an incredibly small portion of this set? Every one of our opinions is not of our own, but of others and our environment.
 

So what do I believe is art?

Well, saying that art is undefinable would be useless, as I mentioned above. Subjectivity is proof of humanity and of synthesized meaning.

There’s the dilemma I’ve run into: I can acknowledge that objectively, there is no meaning in anything. However, at the same time, if I refuse to be subjective, I reject my humanity. Well, this is just the limit of us being human.

Ok, here’s another question: is there an inverse relationship between entertainment value and artistic value? Most people intrinsically would say no, but then why is there such a stigma against forms of art such as animation, manga, webtoons, and YA novels as immature content? These things are all viewed as having lesser artistic value than say, paintings, novels, movies, etc., yet they are undeniably popular due to their entertainment value.

See, this is where I think art begins to branch out into more complicated categories. It isn’t a simple line graph of “less artistic quality” to “more artistic quality” anymore – it’s a full-on spectrum in 3-dimensional space.

See, everything is art, that’s the one thing I can say for sure, because everything can be interpreted. But what about comedy? Aesthetics? Are they art? Sure. They are just more specific words than “art”. Therefore, I conclude that the reason that “entertainment value” has a reputation of diminishing “artistic value” is due to the biases of stuck-up and pretentious art hipsters, portraying humanity’s inferiority complex yet again.

Anyways, if manga didn’t have artistic qualities to it, then why would I read 913 chapters of One Piece? It’s fun, the story has good emotional moments, the art is aesthetically pleasing, and the context surrounding it is both interesting and inspiring to me.

 

Alright, well besides manga there is one other form of “art” which gets completely shit on by snobby art connoisseurs, and that is brain rot. Whether it’s skibidi toilet, sigma boy, or Italian brain rot, these brain rots are extremely hated for their low external value. Brain rot is anything which takes entertainment value up hard to a nauseating extent, making it the perfect example of the inverse entertainment value-artistic value relationship. Take Italian brain rot, for example, which is made almost entirely out of A.I., causing many to believe that it takes on a never before seen zero scale of artistic value.

This is Tralaleo Tralala, a famous example of Italian Brain Rot. Can it ever be more than just entertainment?

 

Moreover, the point of this blog is not to lower your standards for everything. Yes, being snobby is bad, but recognizing the differences between things is human instinct. Learning to love them is the hard part, and what better way to love different things than to find their similarities? What is that similarity, you ask?

It’s “art”.

The truth is, “art” is hard. It’s hard to understand and hard to love, but it’s all of the reason we can love in the first place, and (lovingly) hate as well. Most of us think we have a good understanding about what art is, but this is constantly challenged by new art, new things, new ideas, new feelings.

That’s the final part of the dilemma:

Nothing is objectively “artistic” than anything else


Subjectively ranking, interpreting, and comparing art is what creates humanity


These subjective interpretations are so subject to change, in fact they are changing all of the time, right in front of our very lives.

That’s all it is. Lowkey don’t think too hard about it. Or do, if you must. But remember that as long as you try, it’s expected that you’ll be wrong. “Art” truly is eternal, universal, and omnipotent – that’s what makes it so great. Greater than anything else, in fact. Learn to ride its wave instead of fighting against it, or you’ll end up drowning in a puddle of delusion. Let me now end this off with a collection of some diverse art that I enjoy: