Art?

Yesterday, I was in the audience of a panel discussion titled "What is Art".  As someone who has emerged from the craft world, I'm often exposed to the de-valuing of my work, because of my medium.  None of the three panelists made any distinction between the two worlds during their formal presentations, one going so far as to say that art can be created with any medium.  All of them included technology-based creations and performance  in their definition of art.  They had been asked to bring three examples of "art" and three examples of "not art", but all of them qualified the definitions a bit, two providing examples of "good art" and "bad art", and one who referred to "art that makes me exhale" and "art that annoys me".  Only after the presentations, did an audience member ask directly about the distinction between "art" and "craft", and again, none of the panelists would acknowledge a distinction, each stating that craft can be art.  One audience member even quoted Wikipedia definitions of each, which, generally, state that craft requires skill and art doesn't.

There was discussion about the purpose of art, and all of the usuall suspects were mentioned--provide beauty, evoke emotion, encourage dialogue/pass a message, or have a purpose such as encouraging social change.  When the issue of art not having function was brought up, all three of the panelists disageed, pointing out that more and more commonly in today's society, art is created for a social or political purpose/function.  One went so far as to say that the issue of the function of craft was simply being used to discourage acceptance of art created from other than traditional media.

The one issue that has given me pause for thought is that art today is  often created based on  a thought, idea, or message.  My art is based on the pleasure I find in line, shape and, most of all, colour.  I'm not trying to influence people's thought or ideas, the way much younger artists do.  Maybe it's a function of my age nad the comfort I find in living life day-to-day.