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Definition, hmm, maybe creativity for creativity's sake. Someone who knew a lot about it was Robert Henri, author of "The Art Spirit."

I might suggest that one's entire life is a form of art, anything that's done with a certain personal style.

There are no limits, it's just that so much of it is so bad.

I honestly think it is anything you think it is. I used to think that abstract art was silly until I tried it myself and found it difficult (very). It is funny how it has changed over time. When I lived in Europe, I saw so many old paintings that looked like photographs. I also like performance art. The way we dress can be artistic. Books and words make my day, as does music. Vincent Van Gogh makes me want to swirl and I just love his art and the list goes on.

I don't know if this pertains, but I always considered construction to be an art. Even when I was a young framer. Contractors and inspectors always complimented me on how nice my framed houses looked. Later, when I got into remodeling, people would say they heard I was a perfectionist. No ma'am, I just want the job to look right.

There seems to be a creative impulse in most people, it may not be to paint, sing, dance, write...it might be expressed in more 'mundane' things: How they decorate their house or lay out their landscape or garden.

We talk of the 'Art of' conversation, love because you can't give precise directions for doing those things well...the way you can give instructions for say making a repair to a car or baking a certain kind of treat. There are too many variables: Both conversations and love are always collaborative art...even where love is unequal or rejected--the 'voice' of the other shapes the love along with our own.

More than once i've compared a 'good' conversation to a jazz jam session because sometimes there's several variations on a theme and then someone will add a new element (bars of notes) and the others will do variations of it, building on the original. There is an organic flow to a really stimulating conversation that carries one along and plays with one's sense of time the same as becoming immersed a well crafted music/dance performance will.

Art is so subjective and so personal. Cute and kitschy may speak to someone's spirit...and who am i to tell them 'No, that's not art.'? There is a man in the Pacific Northwest who makes 'sculptures' from driftwood and recycled metal parts of cars and other machinery. They are creative and fun and i have to say i think he has a point when he says there should be more not less emphasis on 'the arts', on creativity in schools, it might curb some of destructive trends in the behaviors of young people.

i will have to look for that book GW, since i went to a quote site i like and read several quotes from Henri to which i related.

"I am interested in art as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living." Robert Henri

It is art if it stirs something in the observer.

!`ve seen art and heard art that repelled me but I don`t believe in limits short of physical injury. If you don`t like it you don`t have to look at it, listen to it or watch it. That`s my personal opinion.

It's truly one of the great books., feywon, and it's full of great quotes like that. It gave me more of an understanding of what art is and can be than anything ever has.

Redhand, you're right about construction. Anything you put part of yourself into, anything you do with your own flair, is art in my opinion.

I have a friend who is an artist, and I must admit that since meeting him, he has opened my eyes even wider regarding art and one's interpretation of it. I think it is very similar to music. It can touch and inspire you but leave another individual stone cold. I don't think there are boundaries regarding art, because it is supposed to represent freedom of expression. However, it doesn't guarantee that everyone is going to understand or appreciate it.

People are creating works of art everywhere. Somebody putting flowers in a vase. Another knitting a sweater, Steve framing a house is such a great example! We all just need to open up and experience it. Art is all around us.

Anything done well.