Even though I don't know how to draw but I do see many artworks even the ones displayed by the roadside, I don’t think I have ever experienced bad art but I’ve heard people use that phrase so often that it makes me wonder what it truly means, If art is simply a way of expressing feelings, can it really be bad? Maybe it’s just that some forms of art are harder for others to understand, I don’t know how to draw or paint, but I do know how it feels to express something and not be understood.
Art takes many forms like music, dance, writing, acting, even how someone dresses or decorates their room, it is everywhere, each person expresses themselves differently, what one person finds beautiful might look strange to another person, I think that’s where the problem begins, people often judge art by how it looks instead of how it feels, If it’s not neat, colorful, or familiar, they call it bad but maybe it’s not bad maybe it’s just bold, honest, or misunderstood.
Sometimes I scroll through social media and see artworks that people laugh at or criticize, I catch myself wondering if the artist feels hurt seeing those comments, some of those works may not look perfect but I can tell they were made with effort, It’s easy to call something bad when we don’t understand it, but art isn’t supposed to please everyone, It’s supposed to make us feel something even confusion is a feeling.
I think art becomes bad only when it loses its meaning, when someone copies others without purpose or pretends to feel what they don’t, that’s when art feels empty but as long as it comes from a real place, joy, pain, love, or fear then it is valid, even a child’s random drawing on paper is a kind of art, because that’s how the child sees the world. Who am I to call that bad?
I remember a time I visited a galleries and I saw things that confuse me like a painting with strange lines and my first reaction was “What’s this?” but when I take a moment to think, i realize that maybe I’m not meant to fully get it, maybe the message is personal to the artist and I’m only meant to feel a part of it, so not understanding something doesn’t mean it has no value.
We all express ourselves differently, some people use words, others use colors or sounds, so when we label one person’s expression as bad, we are saying that their emotions don’t matter, that doesn’t feel right to me, If we start creating rules for what art should look like, then we will lose the very thing that makes it beautiful.
So to the question of the day Is there really bad art? I don’t think so, there’s art that people don’t like, and art they don’t understand, there’s art that breaks rules and art that makes no sense at first glance but all of it comes from someone’s mind, someone’s heart, or someone’s experience, that alone makes it valuable.
Art is about expression, not approval, as long as it tells a story or captures a feeling, it’s enough, So the next time I hear someone say “That’s bad art,” I’ll smile and remember that sometimes what looks wrong to one person is perfect to another.
This is my response to this episode of Hivelearners community prompt of #hl-w188e02 which the topic is tagged BAD ART
