However she came to grapple with and understand her experience was unusual, sure. But who was I to say she was wrong? Maybe she really did meet a devil.
And so, I slowly carved out a gray area within myself, where I was able to allow both my opinions and beliefs to exist at the same time as her opinions and beliefs. I could hold onto my own ideas without shutting hers down.
Both could exist at the same time. I didn't have to brush her off, ignore her, or deny her experiences just because my own experiences were different. I could let her exist as she was, and let myself exist as I was, at the same time.
I think this gray space is necessary to understand art.
There are so many variables to consider when attempting to define what qualifies as art and what doesn't.
Medium, for starters. There's drawing, painting, music, writing, collage, poetry, photography, AI, glass-blowing, metallurgy, sculpture, movies, printmaking, dance—and that's only a fraction of the mediums that exist. There are forms of expression for every sensory experience and every combination of senses. There are static and changing forms of art. There are forms of art that are comfortable and familiar, and forms of art that are completely foreign and alien. There are new and modern art forms and ancient art forms that have survived through history.
It is also worth considering the intention behind the art. Was it made by nature or a human or an animal? Then of course, we can consider the viewer's perception of the art. If I look at an object and think it is art, but you perceive it as trash... is it art or not? And not to mention, surely there is some qualifier of good and bad art. Where is the line between bad art and not art?
There are institutional definitions, cultural definitions, familial definitions. Is the drawing your 5-year-old made art? What about the painting my cat did?
There are copyright and ownership considerations.
There are ethical and moral considerations.
There are so many variables that go into defining and understanding what art is.
How can we know?
The short answer is: we can't. We can believe, but we can’t know.
The long answer is: it's an equation for which we get to decide the variables.
Art = (my perception + artist intention + medium + institutional definition + moral/ethical relevance + x+y+z)*(subjectivity + objectivity)
Instead of numbers, my equation is simply categories of more and less on a scale of 0 to 1. If I believe something is art to the maximum, but all the other categories are 0, it's still art.
We each get to decide if something is art. Individually, as a group, systemically, culturally, institutionally—however you want to slice it. Something can both be art and not art at the same, depending on the lens through which you view it.
We can exist in the gray area.
