High art

Anything can be art. So the mantra goes. And from the point of view of the average Joe, that might be a reasonable view if ones looks at a good sampling of exhibitions of contemporary art.

Then let's begin with idea that anything can be art. If art can have any meaning at all, some discriminating qualifiers could be selected. Fine art, serious art, museum quality art, etc. to distinguish from popular art, crafts, low art, naive art etc.

I've thought about this issue for a while and keep coming to tentative answers that I soon reject. Art as all-encompassing has appeal. It let's everyone in. Then what?

Then I guess it's each person's choice as to how to live with and in art. And this leads to the constructing of personal definitions. A personal definition becomes a device to seek out art. But the definition must be well thought out and fluid.

No personal definition of art that I've constructed has ever come close to Eugene Ionesco's:
Art is the collision of a man with the universe.

What this means for me is:
Challenging substance in the art
Hard, intense work to crack the puzzle
Willingness to risk destruction
Knowing I must pick up the pieces and remake the whole.