For the final online issue of the 2013-14 school year at UC Davis, Muse decided to conduct a special roving report in which random people at the Memorial Union and the Quad were asked the age-old question, “What is art?” Dozens of people were candidly asked and those who chose to respond offered their views on the question.
“Art is something that people make that makes you feel good inside. Art is a piece of work that an artist creates that invokes an emotion within me.”
— Steven Anyanwu, fourth-year computer science major
“I’m an artist and I still haven’t figured out a response to that question.”
– Kajsa Edvardsson, second-year art major
“Art is the purest form of expression of the soul.”
– Dawson Bell, second-year environmental science and management major
“I’m fond of Scott McCloud’s definition of art: art is anything a human does that doesn’t directly grow out of the impulse to survive or reproduce; other stuff we do just because this is what we want to do.”
– Casey Davis
“Art is that that applies to an aesthetic theory.”
– Isaiah Juarado, third-year English major
“Art is a visual expression of what’s going on in your mind.”
– Vanessa Verdin, third-year international relations and Spanish double major
“I think art is an expression of how you feel and how you see the world.”
– Andi Sanchez, fourth-year human development major
“Art is a form of expression that specifically expresses constraints that one experiences in one’s life or in society.”
– Tanya Rodman, second-year design major
“Art is completely subjective. Whatever you think is art — that’s art. To me it’s something that a group of people can come together and experience the same thoughts and feelings over. It’s a way to express your perspective about the world and to offer an opportunity to the rest of the world to appreciate your perspective on the world.”
– Christian Million, third-year economics and psychology double major
“Art displays and expresses things that happen in everyday life. It makes you pay attention, but at the same time art can be self-expression… Art can be anything based on people’s perspectives. I mean, you can argue anything in the world is art, just like you can argue that anything in the world is science; you could argue it’s both.”
– Heidi Roodvoets, second-year art major
“I think art is anything anyone creates. You don’t have to be an artist to be creative. Anything in this world could be art.”
－Jessica Arena, third-year human development major
“I think art is a matter of self-expressions, feelings, emotion — it doesn’t have anything to do with logic, you just have to feel what’s inside of you and try to express it on a canvas or any kind of medium. Art is made for an aesthetic appeal and to make people feel a certain way.”
– Jennifer Wu, third-year design major
