Whether an object is art or not art is the source of constant debate among everyone from employees at Muskoka catering to professional artists and art critics. Some will claim that a shoe left on a counter is art, while another will counter that the only real type of art is paintings by the Old Masters. With this article, we will ease you into this lively debate and help you explore your own concepts of art by discussing the question of how one should define art.

If you look at a definition of art in the dictionary, you will likely see something along the lines of "an object that has been created in order to stimulate some feeling, thought, or reaction in the viewer." However, if we take this sort of definition at face value, almost everything would be art. The tools at the Naturopathy Toronto office would be art, because they were created to stimulate a reaction of the muscles that allows the patient to feel relief from back pain.

Is the difference, then, the act of seeing rather than using or interacting with the object? No, that cannot be either, because there are many different displays of art, especially modern art, that invite participation from the viewer. Candy arranged to be taken by visitors in the Guggenheim has been officially declared art, or just as much art as a painting on the wall in a Liberty Village condo. The candy inspires thought and emotion just as surely as the painting, even if it is only confusion.

So if a pile of candy on the floor is art, does that mean all piles of candy on floors are art? Not necessarily. The difference, it seems, is in the intention. The artist poured the candy onto the floor with the intention of creating art - of making people think about its printed shrink sleeve or its taste or wondering what it was for. To him the candy represents something - a question, a concept - and he is attempting to convey it to his audience. That makes it art.

The question then becomes: if the definition of art lies in the intentions of its creator to create art, can anyone quit their jobs at an Edmonton salon spa and become an artist? Yes and no. Yes in that you can create art, no in that you cannot make a career out of your art unless your art is recognized and appreciated by others, which requires a certain amount of skill, which you can be born with or gain through practice, in the medium you have chosen.