Does "bad" art exist?

a mere act that feels almost like a crime, maybe because it is.

We’ve all done it, at least once, looked at a piece of art, a writing, a painting, a sketch, or a model and whispered underneath our breath, “this isn’t so good”, and walked away with absolute zero remorse. It comes so smoothly to us to be the judge, sit on an imaginative throne, and feel as though we are superior, walk around, look at the creations of people, creations they’ve put their heart and souls into, and have the sheer audacity to call them “bad”, “wrong”, or “pointless”.

Art, an expression of anything at all. Art knows no boundaries, a clump of tangled, grueling thoughts and feelings, sometimes even beautiful, and wanted ones, all of them put into a creation, one that the artist thinks only they can dismantle or decode. But art, art means purpose, art grants purpose, and meaning. A centuries-old work of art is alive because human emotions persist. Because what do you mean the way I feel has been felt, interpreted, and tried to be made sense of by many, many people, many centuries ago? I can never be so lonely with art existing.

Creating something of your own either because its too painful to be made sense of just in your head so you have to take it out someway, somehow, or either because something you feel is so wonderful, something such as love, or friendship, you cannot bear to lose it or forget it, so you create, you create a memory, not just for yourself, but for people forever, who exist and will exist. Humans are mortal, but they aren’t completely gone; they forever reside in this world still, and you will see them in what they have created.

Critizing a creation, any kind, isn’t just belittling an object or piece, but rather belittling the process of it, the idea behind it, the point of its existence, all of which to me is nothing but sheer disrespect. The entitlement we humans have to judge, make fun, or worse, say, “I could make this, what’s the difficulty in this?” Since when and why have people started valuing art based on how easy or quick it is to make, and why does anyone think that any art is “easy” to make? Calling art easy feels like such an insult; art by no means is easy. To think, feel, dread, yearn, is arduous, to sit with your feelings long enough trying to make sense of it, then create, give it life, it’s never just a “piece” of art to the artist, and to so many who understand this. You may look at a painting or read a sonnet, and might not be appealed to or fascinated at first glance. What people often do after this is they walk away, forming an ill opinion of what they just saw and whose work it was, feeling all proud like THEY, who merely dare to sit with their feelings, know better than an artist, a creator.

Art is so much more than what meets the eye; it begins with the artist, their mind, feelings, thoughts, following the unsettlement, being completely unable to sit with the idea they have, the ache, feelings that consume them whole, almost like it’s eating them from the inside, they have to make something of it, get it out in some way. So they create. So much of the world, and the artist goes into just one piece of art, so much that we don’t know and may never know; various perspectives, interpretations, and opinions about a unique life. And yet people expect to be hit by everything, to grasp each concept. And if they don’t, which they can never, they walk away calling it “bad”, pretending to be a judge without ever understanding the uniqueness of human existence, that to me is the most disrespectful and obnoxious act.

Imagine visiting an art gallery, or reading every single book in the library, or listening to every song that has ever been made, and imagine everything making utter and complete sense to you, imagine understanding and feeling everything so deep within you. How excruciatingly overwhelming, I think we’d explode like that. Humans are not designed to understand everything. We can’t; we’ll all be the same, same burnt out zombies. We will know what anyone’s going to say before they say it, and they’ll know that you know, and on and on and on! It’s frustrating to even think about it; it’s like a world with no color, no uniqueness, just a plain, grey world with people who want to stop feeling because they’re capable of the entirety of it.

Our minds are not designed to grasp every concept in the world. It’s a pretty humbling realization if you come to think of it. Often, people have this urge to showcase themselves as something really cool or unique; they put up this performance in the desire to be everything, to know everything, and give themselves labels of being a “nerd” or being into “niche” hobbies. Now, there is nothing wrong with that. I’m sure many people exist and are really cool and hold niche interests, but the whole concept of giving yourself these labels and trying to be so influenced by EVERYTHING, well, of course, we can thank social media for that, ugh. People now lack originality; everyone’s trying to perform, picking interests solely to fit in and appear cooler. What happened to actually doing things for yourself? Everyone puts up this show, a performance, of not who they are but who they want to be, and they want to be everything all at once, so they pretend to hold knowledge about everything, all to be able to admire a bunch of people. Maybe it works, but the question is, why are we trying to impress everybody? Why do people want to make themselves appear knowledgeable about everything? It’s useless; it lacks all originality and uniqueness, and by that, all we have are performative people with a hell of a lot of entitlement.

You see, when people put up this performance for society for too long, they slowly begin to believe they are “all that,” and then comes the sense of entitlement, the pride, the “I know it all” behavior. One thing I’ve noticed in such individuals is that they barely like anything; they always have something to say, to throw some criticism, especially when it is NOT needed. They can never be amused or impressed by anything; they can barely ever stand still and take in the beauty and pleasure of any piece of work, which is to say they can never respect anything. And all of this for just a performance, to somehow prove that they’re very educated about certain phenomena. What a waste of free will!

It’s so important to be humble, to know your worth, and I don’t negatively mean this; I mean this in a way that to be aware of your worth is not to be insecure but therefore be completely okay with the fact that you will not understand or be drawn towards everything, because not everything is made for you, and that’s okay. You are allowed to express dislike, but you are not allowed to be ill towards what you don’t like. And art, in any form, will always be worthy and purposeful, even if to just one person.