Kati: What is art?

I think art is less the product than it is the process. In my opinion, two people can produce identical products, but that doesn't make them both art. For example, consider an architect taking photographs of an old house for inspiration. He may believe the house is "art," but not his photographs; they are a tool to help him remember. However, if an art student visits the property, carefully considers angles, and takes a photo, I think his is art, even if it is identical to the architect's photo. Art is the intentional product of the process of doing art, and so has no set categories or bounds about what that product itself has to do or be. Doing art, I think, is a creative act of pursuing something more than just a product. In the instance of using a phrase like "the art of teaching," we are conveying that a good teacher does more than just achieve the product of knowledge transfer-- they create something more in the process.

This is a photograph my little sister took of the sidewalk outside our house.

And this is a photograph I found online that someone took as evidence of how poorly maintained sidewalks in his hometown were. 

I think what matters here is less how beautiful or aesthetically striking the photographs are, because that is a matter of taste and not a question of art, but rather that my little sister was intentionally engaging in the creative process of doing art and I have no reason to believe the man was.