Theory 2: The Work of Art, from The Painter Who Lived Inside the Painting / Not Art Theory by Everybody the Artist
Art is not a painting. It's okay to call paintings works of art because that is what they do. They do the 'work' of Art. But the real 'work' of art is not the painting itself; it's what happens when we look into the painting.
Let's revisit the question, 'What is not art?' Asking this question reveals Art’s big secret—Art is not a thing; it's an experience. This inquiry shows us that Art isn't so much a matter of what we look at, but how and what we see.
By asking, 'What is not Art?' our experience of ordinary things can become very similar to what it's like when we are looking at a painting. When our eyes in a painting, there’s a freedom to forget what you know and let the painting guide your experience. The Expression can give you a new perspective, maybe even change the way you see the world.
Like a painting, our question performs this 'work' of art for us. It reorients our perception, freeing it, and allowing us to open our eyes and suddenly see that everything can be looked at as art.
If art were really some ‘thing,’ like a painting, it should be really easy for all of us to just point to any old ordinary thing and say, 'That right there, that is not art!' But that just isn't so easy for us to do. It’s as if, as soon as we try to say something isn’t art, the artist within us all immediately needs to reconsider.
Thus, our question betrays another one of art's little secrets for us. Most art isn't actually meant to be seen as art.
Most art is actually meant to be seen as life.
