Things are not art
Yesterday I came across this post:
The creative journey is not an inconvenience.
In it, Moody Warlock says:
The journey to create art IS part of the art. It's not dispensable. It's not an inconvenience. It's the way we create meaning for ourselves. It's the method by which we grow and understand both ourselves and the world.
I of course wholeheartedly agree with this. I would go even further: the process to create art is the art, period. We refer to a made thing as "a work of art", literally the result of art. By referring to the products of art as simply "art" we have moved the onus of artistry from the process to its result, which can, quite conveniently, be commodified. I think this is a mistake.
This is made particularly clear when a work of art is reproduced industrially to be sold. A book, say. A book is not art; writing is art. A book is a thing.
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