What is art, Ty Warren?

It’s fair to say that one of my closest friends is, give or take, my polar opposite. He chose a small college while I chose a big university. He chooses to travel, as I tend to be more of a homebody. I dedicate much time to fitness and my physical health, whereas he smokes cigarettes and drinks Pabst Blue Ribbon. I’m a pre-business major and he’s studying art and philosophy. Lucas Cook is one of my dearest friends and I could spend months at a time with him, but we don’t choose to live our lives the same way. In fact, we never choose to live our lives in the same way. This summer, while we were back home in McMinnville, Oregon, Lucas challenged me take an art class. He said to me, “What’s the worst that could happen? You find something other than numbers that interest you?” Lucas has already found success in his short career as a photographer, so I’ll award him some credibility. With that being said, I accepted his challenge and now I find myself in Art 111 with Ty Warren.

Within the first week, we were challenged with analyzing and interpreting an artist. Analyzing and interpreting the style, motive, emotion, and all other things that can be drawn from art. Our first artist demonstration was our professor, Ty Warren. Before the session where we would see her work, she explained that she would be showing a video of her doing push-ups until she passed out…

“We’re watching a video of our professor doing push ups? And this is art?,” said Thomas Moore, another Art 111 student.

“I’m going to be one hell of an artist if she’s calling that art,” said Adam Grodahl, another Art 111 student.

Art is an expression. It has emotion, meaning, and reasoning. Whatever that emotion or reason is and how the artist chooses to express it, is his or her way of doing it and to them; it’s the right way.

After seeing Ty’s work progression, it’s not hard to tell she has been “toeing the line” throughout her career. That’s how she chooses to express herself, and to her, it’s the ‘right’ way of doing it. Her final piece was, in fact, a video of her doing push-ups until she passed out. I’d be lying if I said the film didn’t make me uncomfortable. It made me very uncomfortable, as my body tensed up and my stomach turned, but I feel that was her objective. This wasn’t a piece that everyone would put on repeat (hell, I’d be surprised if anyone put it on repeat), but nonetheless, it was an expression.

From this week’s reading, “What Is Art For?,” there is a quote from Dissanayake’s book, Homo Aestheticus, that really stood out to me. “The dominant idea about art is our culture, ever since the idea of ‘art’ itself rose in the eighteenth century, has been that it is superfluous-an ornament or enhancement, pleasant enough but hardly necessary.” When I think about Ty’s video as an expression, rather than work, it makes me question the accuracy of the belief that Dissanayake touches on. Is art necessary to everyone? To each his own.

I’ve seen Lucas progress through his work and I must admit, I’m proud to call him one of my closest friends and I hope all of you enjoy his work as much as I do.

www.lucascookphotography.com