The Definition of Art

Years ago I remember holding up a piece of ruled paper, completely coloured in. The upper half was blue and the lower half green, representing the sky and the ground respectively. This was completed with a tiny cursive ‘v’ made in black colour pencil in the corner of the page—a single, simple, bird. At seven years old, I called this art.

Years later I find myself standing over a charcoal sketch of a guitar, my hands and arms tinted pitch black. Four hours of shading, blending, layering and erasing later, I called this art.

Charcoal Sketch of a Guitar

What is art?

Art, I believe, is anything that conveys emotions, unsaid. Be it ‘White fire' that I painted by Barrett Newman—a piece comprising of two parallel lines, one smooth and amber and the other rugged and blue, on a relatively plain backdrop—or the Mona Lisa itself, art tells a story.

City Girl

Somewhere in the world is a little girl finger-painting all over the cream coloured walls of her house, a man in his late fifties hunched over a potters wheel shaping a vase, a woman spray painting discarded boards on the sidewalk, a little boy colouring in cartoons with chalk on the roadside.

They all call it art, and they’re all correct.

Mihika Sharma

@Mihika Sharma.

A seventeen years old budding artist, currently studying in the 12th grade.

She has been sketching since she was seven and art has become a means of creative expression for her since then.