It's All Art!

"What is art?"

This question comes up when two or more creative people have a serious conversation. Last January, a fellow resident at the Vermont Studio Center shared a conversation she had had with a visiting artist. It went something like this.

Visiting Artist/Critic (while looking at Artists work): "Where is the suffering?"

Resident Artist: "I don't paint suffering."

Visiting Artist/Critic: "I need to see the pain."

Resident Artist: "My paintings offer color and composition and people hang them in their homes."

Visiting Artist/Critic: "Do you think that is enough?"

There it is - the BIG question. What makes it art? Is it art if its decorative? Is it art if its commercial?

With the appearance today of my first column in the Valley News, a newspaper that serves the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont, I confidently say "Yes, it is art and I don't paint suffering either."

This painting was at the top of the column.

My column will appear in the Food Section of the paper every Wednesday with this image as the identifying graphic.

A regular column in the newspaper is the offshoot of my food blog www.CarolEgbert.com .

---Carol Egbert