I find it very interesting how different people define "art". Personal preference almost always comes into play. My son and I have visited The Art Institute of Chicago many times. He is an artist and a lot of my inspiration to write songs comes from seeing how passionate he is about his art.

On a recent visit to the Art Institute we viewed an entire gallery that was filled with different sized canvases but they were all mostly blank. If you looked closely you could see some minimal shading and markings on some of them. But to me, they looked mostly blank.

Of course, we spent the next few days arguing about whether or not they were really art. My position being "if there is nothing much on the canvas it can't be art" and "if I can do it it can't be art" and "if it takes so little effort it can't be art"! But my son held fast to his viewpoint that art is subjective and he pointed out how my metrics fail in many examples I do consider as art.

So, even though I still have trouble considering mostly blank canvases as art, I have learned a lot about art from my son. Mostly I have learned that just because I don't get it or it does not fit with my perceptions of art, that does not mean it is not art. It just means I don't prefer it.

Interesting side effect of that realization...I am starting to appreciate a lot more art than I ever did before!