What is Beauty or Art

Art and Beauty

Short story, the Flower Bed  

Every day durring the spring time after school, I like to go to a little park in the center of my neighborhood.  I sit on a bench and read, write, plan, or work on any homework.  Each day I like to sit in the same spot because right in front of where I sit is the most beautiful flower bed.  There are many different types of flowers, more than I have ever seen in one spot before.  And oh, are they beautiful.  A couple days ago a teen boy walked by the flower bed, talking with one of his friends.  He was chewing gum and I watched as he ripped a flower head off the mess of petals and stems.  He stuck his gum on the flower head and casually dropped it.  He probably would have seen my mouth drop open if he looked my way, but he didn't.  That got me thinking: is it only me who thinks that messy flower beds are the most beautiful things?  How would someone be able to overlook that?

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↑ I didn't draw this ↑ I got it from this website: 

https://www.bhg.com/gardening/plans/easy/fivefabgardenplans/utm_source=pinterest&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bhg_927512897_topcontent   

There are many other pretty flower bed drawings on the website as well! :)

I am not sure if I can even call that a short story but I thought it was fun, and a good way to segment into talking about the last two sentences in the story.  

I often contemplate what is considered beauty or art and have written many papers, speeches, and poems on the topic.  

There is a very controversial art project (or was, it's over now) done by Guillermo Vergas.  What he did was find a stray dog, chained him in an art museum and, using dog food, wrote “You are what you Read” on the wall behind him. The dog either slowly starved to death or escaped somehow. No one really knows for sure.  Now, many people think that this was cruel to the dog. And I can’t help but agree. One of Guillermo Vergas's excuses for doing this is that the dog was going to die anyway.  Alright, now is this art? Many people think not and that it was extremely cruel to the dog. But why would Guillermo Vergas put this in an art museum if he didn’t think it was art? Think about that for a moment.  

If someone creates something, posts it on the internet, and claims it is art, I am sure there will be people who say it's not art or it's not beautiful.  It goes without saying art it super subjective and you have to decide for yourself if what you made is art.  

Some of my favorite defenitions of what is art:

1. Art is the product of human creativity, the creation of beautiful or significant things. 
2. Merriam Webster's definition of art is: the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.

I think art and beauty can be beautiful by simply making you think.  Maybe its not beautiful when you first glance at it but if it causes you think it can be beautiful as well.  

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Thanks for reading!  This one was a little shorter, I wrote this a little last minute and mostly talked about art instead of beauty after the short story but to me those two go hand in hand most of the time. 

If you have any insightful words or questions then comment them below!  Also if you have any favorite pieces of art I would love to see those posted in the comments (if you can't post pictures then I think you can post links).  

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