What does art mean to you? Do you think of paint on canvas, or do you think of an intense musical piece? Do you think of an old quilt or do you think of a magnificent sculpture?

Many people would be quick to say that art is only “in the eye of the beholder,” to use a popular cliche. They mean that art can only be defined by a matter of opinion.

Still others could use another cliche in disagreement: “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” This, at first, does not seem like a contradiction, but it is. The defenders of this retort would tell you that just because you think a piece of work is great does not necessarily make it so, and likewise, just because you think a piece of work is crap does not necessarily mean that it is not a great work of art. In other words: a masterpiece remains a masterpiece, whether you regard it as such or not.

American culture, (which gains its influences from what are generally regarded as great masterpieces,) crumbles without its foundation, without certain artistic achievements that have inspired the leading minds of our society, past, present, and future. However, the youth of today, myself included, tend to veer away from such art forms because they do not appeal to us aesthetically. Our social lives receive the ribbon of top priority in a quest to find ourselves, and, as a result, the journey to discovering higher forms of art fades into the background. We let the media have complete control over what is shoved down our throats; we give them our trust without thinking twice. This is very dangerous.

When I talked to my current English teacher, Chris Dumaine, about this, he agreed with me. People can get “stuck in grooves,” so to speak, in which they feel comfortable. It is too easy for a modern-day youth to solely listen to rap music or only read books written by J. K. Rowling. Of course, these pieces can be considered forms of art, there is no doubt to that. Clearly, one man’s opinion isn’t going to change their popularity, and they are popular for a reason. They reach out to kids. Youths of today love the stories that can be told or the beat of the music, but are these pieces of art great art?

After talking to my art teacher here at Monmouth Academy about this subject, Mrs. Elizabeth Sokoloff, I have come away with an altered perspective. She insists “that there is a difference between marketing genius and artistic genius. Marketing geniuses know what people want, and give it to them, whereas artistic geniuses work strictly from an intrinsic desire, almost primal instinct to create art.

“Vincent Van Gogh needed to create art,” she points out. “Here was a man that never sold a single painting in his entire life, who depended upon his brother for his survival – he was like a child – and yet, he needed to do what he did. He needed to create art.”

This brings me to the psychological aspect of art, when we start exploring “other grooves,” other forms of art, and we begin to find more art that we enjoy. We may look at a Picasso painting, for instance, and not realize what it is that makes us entranced by it, but we cannot deny what it does to us. There is a psychological connection, something that draws us into the painting, and it should not be ruled out, as crazy as it may sound, that we are making a psychological connection with the artist himself.

When we go to art galleries, we stand in the same position facing that painting that the artist himself once did, and, although our minds will not completely grasp the thought processes the artist went through, we can appreciate the art that much more because of our vague understanding. The art form is not only a reflection and appreciation of the beauty it is meant to represent, but also of the artist’s mind, and of our own human nature. That is what art is really about. When we are listening to a piece of tragic music, we continue to listen because we can relate to the artist’s struggle with our own, or we can appreciate his attempt to confront his demons by his need to put it into song.

In the very least, we need to respect these artist’s efforts to strip themselves down, examine themselves, and become, in a sense, naked to the world. Our modern society inflicts pressure upon us to hide our weaknesses or we will get eaten alive, but the greatest of artist struggle to do the opposite; risking everything to become exposed, risking everything so that they might learn more about themselves. So when we view a piece that a great artist has created, we should attempt to see their struggle, because it might help us in ours. It is important for us to remember that those great artists have already undergone the struggle we are dealing with. They have been in our shoes, so we need to examine those pieces of art, even if they were created in a spastic and selfish urgency, because we might be able to find support and more importantly growth within those pieces (Going back to Van Gogh, when we feel like a child, we can look at a painting of his and relate, receive hope that we are not alone).

We cannot do this, however, if we are stuck in a groove. If we ignore the great authors like Charles Dickens, even if his prose appears stale to our mental taste-buds, if we ignore the classical musicians like Bach and Beethoven, even if we become bored listening to them; if we also choose to disregard the visual artists like Van Gogh and Picasso, Michelangelo and Da Vinci, then we cannot also fully appreciate the art that succeeded these great artists, because they were the first of their kind, the inspiration and influence of following cultures.

Before an attempt to escape such grooves is made, it must be first understood why we are stuck in these grooves to begin with. It must be known that we, as human beings, need to be overwhelmed by variety at a young age in order to further our artistic growth and our minds as well. This is what my English teacher would refer to as the “first prong” of nudging one along in their artistic journey. The second prong is the nudge that wedges one out of a specified gap and into exploring other forms of art: going back to the beginning.

It cannot be denied that we would not be in the grooves we are in unless we discovered something in those grooves that we thoroughly enjoyed (At least I should hope that you have found something that you thoroughly enjoyed in them). However, in order to discover a wider variety of art, we need to see what impacted file bands that we listen to now, or the authors that inspired the books we read. We need, too, to find out who those influences are even if they are not acknowledged.

After all, art is an evolutionary process. The books we read as children will surely not please us (at least not as much) today as they did back then. Once we move on from children’s books, we can evolve and start reading higher forms of art. We will continue to evolve in what we read, and this correlates strongly to our intellectual growth, which is in turn connected to our journey of discovering art. It is a constantly connected evolution that we must not abandon until our dying breath.