I'm not an artist, but I do believe even I have a tiny creative side of my self. Also, I believe, we do not need to be artists in order to understand and admire any form of art. So here's my attempt to answer your question:


Once my school had a program in which we were discussing Indian paintings. From ancient to medieval, to modern. Our principal was leading the discussion and his first words, after the introduction were;

"Man shall not live by bread alone."

As far as I can remember, it's a biblical verse and the point he was trying to make was that, Art is not something you do as a pastime. It's a need of human beings. You do not only need food, cloth and shelter for living. Sure you can survive with them, but you cannot *live* without art. Even the most foolish person has atleast a slice of the understanding of that infinite thing called art.

Art is the expression of raw human sentiments in such a way that appeals to other human beings and leaves them mesmerized. Here "mesmerized" does not mean only "happy" or "overjoyed", Art can leave you depressed, sad and anxious, yet mesmerized.

Note that, I do not use the term "beauty". Beauty in itself, does not exist in the absence of an observer. When we find something that appeals to us, we consider it "beautiful". Other people may not find the same thing even beautiful that we deeply admire.

When you see a "beautiful" drawing, you are left spellbound. What was the *something* that forced your soul to feel that way? When you listen to music, especially folk songs and classical, you feel the depth of the human feelings which created them. People who created them recently, or even thousands of years ago, embedded in them, their joys, sorrows, pain, grief and even their lifestyles. When you observe their work and understand them, you get the taste of life and realise what art is.


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Thanks for reading!