1-Asya: "What is Art?"

Art is a process, a creative expression that comes from the artist. Powerful art grabs the viewer. Art has intent, and this intent can be obvious, or hidden, or interpreted differently by the artist and the viewer. This question brought to mind Oscar Wilde, who wrote a preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray titled, "All Art Is Quite Useless", a few sentences of which are found below:

All Art Is Quite Useless


The artist is the creator of beautiful things.
     To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.
     The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved.
      No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.
      No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.
           All art is at once surface and symbol. 
     Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
         Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.
     It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. 
          All art is quite useless.

childrens' art: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/garden/27art.html?pagewanted=1
cool art blog: http://meathaus.com/category/art/

John Malta's paintings make me uncomfortable. http://www.j-malta.com/

Kim Sielbeck uses red in an interesting way. http://kimsielbeck.wordpress.com/