-my cow is fatter than yours!

-my sheep is a fucking rectangle!

-o ya? mine is a hypercube! take that plebes.

I sometimes wonder about the more ridiculous ones... but then I think if you've ever produced creative work for a client, and they keep suggesting changes...

eventually you say "are your sure you want me to do this? It will look ridiculous!"

And they say "just do it - I'm paying you, you know"

And you go "okay... I'm just going to make this extra ridiculous so they realise their mistake"

And then you do it, and rather than realising their mistake, they love it, and they show their friends and colleagues who all love it too, even though they're all objectively wrong.

[Edit] p.s. I want to see a return to bovine based status symbols. I want to see rap music about dissing the size of each other's cattle and proclaiming your own cow to be the best and largest.

Love the cows, hate that they were status symbols.

Look at this thing and tell me it's not a fucking massive duck

The current equivalent.. hmm would be a fancy car or clothes..? maybe a phone? pathetic, i'll take a cow as a status symbol any time of the week, even a chicken.

Why is Gamorra?

Thank you :)

"Look at my massive cow" is a fully identifiable art style/period:)

atlasobscura.com - In 19th-Century Britain, The Hottest Status Symbol Was a Painting of Your Cow

rarehistoricalphotos.com - The Rectangular Cows: Geometric Livestock Depicted in 19th-Century British Paintings

artuk.org - The rectangular cows of Art UK

These are all real definitions from someone, somewhere (heavily paraphrased, and original attribution lost, of course).

What would be the modern equivalent of "Look at my massive cow"? As garish as a solid-gold toilet, perhaps?

I would posit that art generates an emotion in the artist as well, and at least for me, it's existential.

If i don't art.. i kinda become a horrible person and wanna die, so at least for me.. it is not superfluous, unless we accept that life is superfluous, in which case, I agree.

then again... calling something superfluous in a capitalist-extractivist society is a high compliment meaning something akin to "can't be exploited" which I find beautiful too. Thank you kindly for sharing :)

What a beautiful answer. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every single line.

My favourite was the cow one, to be honest if i had a pretty cow i would paint it often.

If you would... forgive me, i would call this answer... ART!!! ❤️

There's probably a million different answers to that, which are all true to someone, somewhere at some time.

You sometimes can start with a long and complicated definition, and them you attack that definition with counter-examples (for instance, the existence of sound art attacks any suggestion of art being purely visual).

You often can end up with something a bit vague, contradictory or silly, such as:

"Art is (normally) an expression of something that wanted or needed to be expressed, except when it isn't"

or

"Art is a way of communicating with people who are attuned to receive that communication"

The main difference between the two vague statements is whether the "artness" happens in the intention to produce something as art, or whether it is only art once someone else sees it and agrees? Can the art-reciever define something as art which wasn't intended as art?

It's worth noting how the definition has changed over the years - and how modern, post-modern and contemporary art's insistence on "subverting norms and rules" must constantly churn up and spit out new, contradictory definitions.

These have all been true at some point, somewhere:

"Art is to visually show the glory and might of our God, so people know to fear and worship him"

"Art is to tell our stories and traditions to the illiterate"

"Art is clear figurative works to remember who our ancestors are"

"Art is to show you all how wealthy and successful I am. Look at this painting of my cow - it's massive. Look at my massive cow! That's honestly what my cows look like. I am so cool and successful"

"Art is to show you the areas of the world I have visited, that you haven't"

"Art is to show you things I have seen which were so beautiful as to cause a fluttering in my sensitive heart - I want you to enjoy them too"

"Art is to show you the horrors I have seen, so you may better understand them"

"Art is to show you the brutal reality of the situation, so you may see it and protest it"

"Art is to show the glory of our people, and the savagery of theirs"

"Art is to commemorate the heroes of our country"

"Art is to satirise and to laugh at those who believe they are above us"

"Art is to express the true beauty in the world"

"Art is a way to communicate for the powerless in society who won't be listened to"

"Art is an expression of my purest thought"

"Art is a creative expression of my feelings, which I struggle to articulate through other methods"

"Art is just a form of entertainment"

"Art is the output of masters in creative trades - the ability to perfectly recreate scenes from life on canvas, or in clay or marble"

"Art is the ability to convey meaning beyond the image - that is what elevates it above the photograph"

"Art is anything which makes you stop and think"

"Art is the only true expression of humanity, creativity and civilisation"

"Art is anything that I, an artist, make"

"Art is anything that I, an artist, decide is art"

"Art is anything on display in an art gallery"

"Art is a vehicle to inflate the value of an object to assist in fraud and money laundering"

"Art is... look I just felt compelled to make this because I wanted to see what it looked like and if you like it too that's cool"

So, this either doesn't answer your question at all, or it answers it 20 times :)

As for "what's it for", I don't know really, but I'm glad it's there.

1. Art generates an emotion in the spectator. 2. That is its only goal; hence it complements all that stuff we need to survive, in a sense it is superfluous.

beautiful answer. thanks for sharing. :)

ok but explain to me what warren is please.

edit:

just noticed it's a meme and it's golden. Great answer. Thank you for it.

I don't feel that I need to explain my art to you, Warren.

Hard question to answer.

Art can be anything that invokes a feeling.

Art when constructed has intent to invoke a feeling.

What we feel about art is influenced by the observer's life experience and it's meaning can change over time.

it's a party down here, and we're all made of poop - the fly

"A work of fine art is “fine” not because it is “refined” or “finished,” but because it is an end (finis, Latin, means end) in itself. It does not move toward some result beyond itself. It is, as Emerson said of beauty, its own excuse for being."

therefore this is fine art.

My pleasure, fellow anon!

hahaha damn, thanks for making me laugh

Yeah, but that was before they rounded the points. 🥲

yummy. don't you love it when doritos come dipped in the revelation of the suppressed shadow as it rips through your ribcage?

(i totally get it tbh lol)

Givin' me Cool Ranch vibes, NGL.

Thanks! I'm happy to hear that.

darn good. love the symbolism

<3 thank you kindly

Love the originality

Thanks for the query.. i reckon.. perhaps i may have taken some ... criticism a lil too literally. It's nice to see that there's a community that doesn't see it as spam :). I'm grateful for y'all words.