Art Gallery of Ontario

Art matters because it has limitless power through the breaking of barriers. Speech barriers, political and emotional barriers. Art defies the norm, it speaks out through the canvas, each colour, shape and form conveying individual messages.
Art speaks even further through its viewers. Its voice is silent yet still full of passion and the strength to move and therefore matters because it liberates, empowers and touches lives.

Art is everywhere and everything. Without art, there would be nothing because everywhere I turn, everywhere I look I can see lines–lines that build shapes–shapes that build form. I enjoy the sense of liberty, inspiration and creativity that art gives me. What I like most about art is that it is unique like its creator. Although sometimes art can be imitated, it is impossible for different artists to be the same because each person has different feelings to express and different ways of communicating those feelings. Yet, by creating art, all artists believe in the fact that art matters. I think it is this diversity and unity that makes art so alluring to me. Art exists without barriers; it matters to everyone, regardless of religion, race, disabilities or time.

Art is everything and should be more important than it is to this society today. Art is more than just about the visual. Art has power, emotion, social comment and is a visual record of everything going on around us. Art is not just about depicting the beautiful. Art is commentary and should NEVER be censored… even “bad art” has worth.
One of Keith Haring’s goals was to make art accessible to all people and I follow that line of thinking. Art is not just for the well-educated or the wealthy. Art is for all people.
What amazes me is how many hundreds of thousands of people have no art in their own home whatsoever… no appreciation of art of any kind. Part of that, I believe, is due to “artisitic eliteism”. When people talk about art in a heavily wordy manner using terminology that no one understands, most people are intimidated by that and it reflects in their hesitation to put art on their own walls. I don’t believe art should be spoken about in that manner. Sometimes, a painting is just a painting. I personally think the best thing anyone could do is encourage people to talk about art in any way they can. Get more and more people to communicate about art, even in the most simplistic manner and they will learn to appreciate art. I believe that most people are afraid to talk about art for fear of sounding silly in the same way people are afraid of colour.
And don’t ever censor art. Everyone is entitled to their own expression. This is the only city I’ve ever lived in where social pressures caused people to remove an appendage off a sculpture because people were offended by it’s penile representation. We’ve even had penises covered up on sculptures as if we still lived in the Victorian age. Women can have breasts but men cannot have penises. If you’re going to have a sculpture of a male, then have the respect to not change it. No one should EVER alter or “adjust” some one else’s vision just to make someone else feel more politically comfortable. No one has that right.
Art is to be appreciated, talked about, wondered at, thought about, marvelled at and loved. Art is life.

I enjoyed reading your thoutghts on Art the most. Your words touched me with its poetic tone. It sounded meaningful, i really liked it.

To be honest, I don’t think anyone knows what art is anymore. The boundaries have been pushed and pulled and tested in directions no one would have thought of years ago and they will be tried and tested in ways we can’t hope to imagine now. Everyone has their own view of what art is, and that is what makes it unique. No other subject is so all encumpassing. Today, “artists” can get away with doing some very outlandish things in the name of art. The term art seems to be used a lot to mean one’s inner expression, no matter how rediculous it is. But their are those who except it and that will tell me my views of art are short sighted and naive. Art to me seems to be a grey area, I don’t know what it is.

“Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.”

-Edgar Degas

Art matters because it allows me to express myself when I am at a loss for words. It allows us to be individuals and share the way we see the world with those who may be blind to it. It expresses a person

Art is the outcome of mankind’s need to create. Artists undergo the urge to fabricate works that will endure long after the maker. Just as art can be created it can be reduced to nothing – but unaffected art will not expire. Landmarks are the legacies of artists to which justifies this necessity to create. Art documents history through the eyes of the beholder by ways unique to no other records. Art allows my imagination to ignite and fulfills my urge to create thus so.

Art matters. Its not so much a question as to why. Everything that we create, everything that we use is art. An actual person had to sit down and imagine and brainstorm how to make that thing work and then design it to maximize function and style. We are surrounded by art and we live art. And art matters because there are so many ways to enjoy it and create it and you cant be wrong. Art is always right, when the artists create it straight from the heart. Art matters beacause artists matter. And artists matter because people matter. Its a never ending chain. The key is to appreciate the gifts that art give us all every single day of our lives.

Art allows me the freedom and comfort to explore and express new ideas without the fear of censorship.

Art is each individual’s expression of the world. What we see, we express through art, be it on canvas, with music, on the dancefloor, on stage or even in words.

Without this, human beings would have no distinction and no value.

We represent the world, and we represent it through our ability to re-create what we percieve.

Art lives on forever, and our physical forms is the perfect example.

“Art is the only thing that justifies mankind.” I read that somewhere, I think in an Ann Rice novel, but I’m not sure. I think she was quoting St. Augustine, maybe.

Art is in everything we do that requires thinking. Speech and body language are actually fairly difficult arts that require a lot of knowledge and skill. Anytime that a thought of the human mind is transferred into a physical action that takes place in the real world and that is specifically intended for others to see and take note of, art has been produced.

ART IS STANDING IN FRONT OF A PAINTING AND WHILE SQUINTING BLOCKING OUT THE EXTERNAL DISTRACTIONS TO SEE ALL THE FANTASY HELD WITHIN.

`DAVE BATTAINO

Surprisingly, I enjoyed Carr’s watercolour cartoon works more than her landscapes. Her watercolours in general were more pleasing and spoke more to me than the oils.

It seems she had a great and humourous grasp of human behavour/foibles. The oils became repetitive and static by comparison.

Art is really a matter if you know it is the most honest way for yourself to express and record what you see, hear, taste, smell, feel at any specific moment of your life. Any form of art is just the tool and tone of visual language you choose to express your feeling. You can express directly or subtly. And no one can comment it is a wrong piece of art. It is the reason we respect artists and their honesty to life.

Art Matters because it allows me to draw cartoons and express humour in stories.

art is ultimate work on man, work by his hands, mind, and eyes, together. It is a monument to the Nation. It is a perfect work to which we strive and some indivuals gets closer than many of other…
“Many comes and just a few are choosen…
… and God arts in heaven…”
these two shows us a lot what art actually is, and how hard to a man is to make it, but real artist do not feel weight.

Daniel OB

Art is nothing but the reflecton of the mood of the artist and the reflection of ones feelings .one lives a life for 80 to 100 years,and cant express his emotions,but an artist can do it in a small canvas of 5×7 inches or even smaller than that,just with the help of few strokes of brushes or even few lines.God created this beautiful world and anartist tries his best to thank him through his expression of feelings.

Yes, I do agree with what you have said. That art guides our life and it is our soul. I am not an artist but I appreciate art in any shape and form. WE see and feel art everywhere. I can say that the beauty of an art lies in the eyes of the beholder. Art is…..magical, spiritual, and it makes us dream of the impossible and yet…….it can be the realization of truth and it can breathe life.