Defining Art Anonymous

"That's art?" my seating neighbor exclaimed in the crisp air of our busy art classroom.

I had to admit, staring at Russian modernist Kazimir Malevich's Black Square painting, I didn't particularly see the esthetic appeal or even the intellectual one.

"What do you define as art?" Eva, my art teacher, questioned. I thought back. My art consisted mostly of drawings of people, paintings inspired by pictures I found interesting or even portraits of family members I was so often requisitioned. Looking at the black square, I felt oddly empty and uneasy.

"Art elicits emotions, it is a form of expression" my teacher finished.

I left class in a daze on my way to the next one, Biology. Strangely the images of the human body my teacher was projecting on the smartboard seemed harmonious, the organs completing each other, the veins ornating and connecting the human body. Was this art, I wondered? It did elicit emotion in me, amazement. But was that the only requirement needed to define art? In Math class, numbers seemed different, somehow. Math was a source of expression, the most intricate and beautiful one. Was math art as well?

Art, beyond drawings and paintings, brought me new lenses. It allowed me to see art in places where I wouldn't...