EVERYTHING IS ART
a manifesto about art cont. . .
JUN 09, 2025
The first post I published on here was an essay about art and how art is ambiguous.
This was an essay I wrote in college for a writing class. I thought at the time when I published it that it had some kind of value, so I shared it. I want to continue this thought process because recently I have changed my mind about this argument. It’s not a tragic essay, but I think I was wrong to assume certain things.
Even though our westernized viewpoints have dismantled, colonized, appropriated and subjected art and objects of unknown meaning or value into various categories of art does not mean that these objects were made to be art. However, for the sake of my thought process, because they were made from human hands and hearts, in some format or another all these ideas and objects, new and ancient can be considered art.
Art in nature is not about a capitalized thing to be sold, it is about creation, it asks for you to appreciate it for what it is. Everything we create, everything we are able to craft from our own hands, that is art in nature. Whether it be a building or a sweater or a candle, it is, in nature, some form of art.
Art is ambiguous, but it is only because everything is ‘art’. The more categories we give something, the more we try to label things and put things in boxes, the less value it has.
We have created a world where this is no longer an essential truth of living. Where ‘primitive’ cultures might not have labeled their creations as art, they were all artists in creation. Using the world around them and the tools at their disposal to create communities, sanctuaries, practical objects, etc. What they were doing, in our perspective, was creating a history for us to study, to learn from, to grow from. Although, we have refused to build upon ancient morals of Being in harmony with the earth and our communities, we have taken for granted their creations by putting them on pedestals in museums. We have ooed and awed at our ancestors for simply living, meanwhile we have forgotten this essential truth of Being.
We have forsaken our better natures for a wealth of material that means nothing, we have forsaken our neighbors as strangers, and we have estranged ourselves to reclusive ideology through the technology we worship.
Why does any of this matter for the meaning of art?
It might have to do with the simple truth of being: that we were only put here to love. But we have forgotten how to love because we were conditioned to worship our systems.
To love what you do is one thing, but to love it for what it gives you is another.
We are all artists crafting our own lives, whether we do it with love or not is up to us. This is congruent with the entirety of the creation story, the entirety of our lives, the entirety of our truth of Being. One person might label themself an artist because they are able to put paint on a canvas, but what does that say about a healer or a lawyer? An artist of the body, an artist of argument. We each have our own distinct places of creation, what we do best, how we can best serve our communities, our friends, our families, humanity, but when we are only able to recognize creation as something belonging to one specific type of person or personality we put the entirety of our humanity at a loss.
Artists are needed everywhere. We might not all be right-brained people, we might not all have the knowledge or dexterity that is necessary to create a sculpture or a simple pot out of clay or rock, but the essence of what it means to create and how we might use this ‘right-minded person’ in society is needed now more than ever. Maybe it is not that we are all artist, but that we are all creators of our lives. That is not to say that a person who paints or takes photographs is useless, they are just as necessary as the doctor. One who allows their subjects to go into the trance, the dance with life, the dance of creation. It is possibly even more important for the healer to recognize and observe this dance, so that they may be better fit to heal their own subjects.
God has gifted us all the gift of life; why is it that we must continue to use it for such meaningless and violent ends? Where does this leave us? What kind of story are we willing to write for our successors? Why have we forsaken ourselves for the sake of a title, a label, something that gives our egos meaning? Why has the creation of a society been given to those who know not of what it means to be in harmony with the earth or our brothers and sisters? How will we reshape our lives?
When will we stop acting like children and instead learn to be more like or learn from our children?
